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The 

Little Grandmother 

of the 

Russian Revolution 



REMINISCENCES AND LETTERS OF 
CATHERINE BRESHKOVSKY 



EDITED BY 

ALICE STONE BLACKWELL 



j^t>?/0-»ltlAJUlAV<^ V-^ * 



non-refefCT 




^WYAD-QHS 



BOSTON 
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY 

1917 



•37 A? 



Copyright, 1917, 
By Little, Brown, and Company. 



All rights reserved 
Published, November, 1917 



n' & 



WnrbDonti ^rc20 
Set up and electrotyped by J. S. Gushing Co., Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



NOV 26 1917 
©CI.A4 77 7 28 



PREFACE 

The material in this book is drawn mainly from three 
sources. Madame Breshkovsky, while in New York, 
gave Doctor Abraham Cahan an account of her child- 
hood and youth. He wrote out her reminiscences, and 
published them in his paper, the Jewish Daily Forward, 
in instalments, running from October 23, 1904, to 
January 18, 1905. 

This account, translated from the Yiddish, and 
somewhat condensed, is here printed in English for 
the first time. It brings the narrative down to her 
first arrest. Through an interpreter, she gave a 
description of her early prison experiences and an 
outline of her later life to Ernest Poole, who published 
it in the Outlook. To the Outlook I am indebted also 
for her letters written in prison to her son. Her ex- 
periences after she was sent to Siberia for the second 
time are told in her own correspondence. 

Her full name, in Russian, is Ekaterina Constan- 
tinovna Breshko-Breshkovskaya. I have used the 
shortened form of it which she herself used in this 
country. 

Alice Stone Blackwell. 

3 MoNADNOCK Street, 

DOECHESTEE, MaSS. 



THE LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF 
THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

CHAPTER I 

The Russian revolution is one of the great events 
of modern history. While it seemed to come with 
surprising suddenness, it was really the fruit of the 
labors and sacrifices of thousands of Russia's noblest 
men and women. Preeminent among these stands 
out the figure of Catherine Breshkovsky, known to 
millions by the affectionate name of Baboushka, the 
"Dear Little Grandmother" of the revolution. 

She was born in 1844, on an estate in the district 
of Vitebsk, in Little Russia. She was fortunate in 
her parents. Whenever she speaks of them, her face 
lights up. "I had wonderful parents," she says. 
"If there is anything good in me, I owe it all to them." 

Her father, Constantine Mikhailovitch Verigo, was 
the son of a Polish aristocrat. Her mother, Olga 
Ivanovna Goremykina, came of a noble family of 
Great Russia. Catherine is therefore three fourths 
Russian and one fourth Polish. 

Constantine Verigo was a handsome, elegant man, 
of majestic presence, with a large head, a high fore- 
head, and blue eyes twinkling with good nature. 



2 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

Even when his brow grew cloudy and his manner 
stern, the children were never afraid of him. 

Neither her father nor her mother ever made an 
enemy. Her father was frank and open-hearted, with 
a hot temper that revolted against injustice. He 
often told the other landowners just what he thought 
of their pretences and their brutal treatment of their 
subordinates ; but these outbursts were never laid 
up against him. He was universally respected and 
liked. His chief pleasure was to sit alone and read 
the works of liberal writers. 

Her mother was not so handsome as her father, 
but had an intelligent and amiable face, exquisite 
manners, and irreproachable tact. She had attended 
school at the well-known Smolin Convent in Petro- 
grad, and was a woman of culture. She was sincerely 
religious. She cared little for the pomps and cere- 
monies of the Greek Church, but brought her children 
up on the gospels, and on beautiful stories of holy 
men and women. 

The mother was very careful in her behavior towards 
others, regardful of appearances and of "good form." 
If a truth were painful, she delicately concealed it. 
Over and over again she said to her children, "The 
best thing in life is the golden mean." She con- 
stantly admonished them that nothing was so harm- 
ful as excess. If a child failed to read her Bible, the 
mother would reprove her; and if the child then 
read the Bible too assiduously, the mother would 
reprove her again, and repeat that excess of any kind 
was fraught with danger. This was drummed into 
the children's ears so often that they dreaded to hear 
it. Nevertheless this polished lady was genuinely 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 3 

tender and warm-hearted. She was always well 
dressed, and took care that her children too should 
be neatly clad. On week days and Sundays alike, 
everybody wore clean clothes ; no one needed to 
make any change when company was expected. 

The home life of the family was rarely ruffled by 
unruly tempers or hasty words. The children were 
never whipped. If they misbehaved, their mother 
lectured them for hours, gently inculcating "the 
golden mean." Not a word of profanity was ever 
heard. Catherine's elder sister Natalie, when about 
eighteen, was a guest for a short time in a musician's 
family. On her return home she reported with much 
excitement that he had used in his talk such shocking 
vulgarisms as "Bah!" and "Piff !" 

When Catherine was four years old, her father bought 
a large estate in the district of Tchernigov. There her 
childhood was passed. 

She had a quick temper as a child. At three years 
old, she once got so angry that she struck her mother 
in the eye with a stick. In the end her mother's 
training enabled her to conquer this fault. 

In her childhood she was always distressed about 
her innumerable "sins." "I would sin and straight- 
way repent it," she said. "My heart was continually 
rent with grief over my misdeeds." What were the 
four-year-old girl's offenses ? She would speak Russian 
when ordered to speak French, or she would sulk 
and pout when told to be "nice" to her brother and 
sister, or perhaps, later, she might refuse to learn her 
grammar lesson, which she hated. Her mother would 
sermonize her till Katya's little heart "softened 
like butter", and the tears streamed down her cheeks. 



4 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

She would go to bed full of good resolutions, but when 
the next day came, again she would speak Russian 
when bidden to speak French. 

When the children went out to walk, Katya used 
to keep apart from the others. She loved solitude. 
She had a passion for scrutinizing things and meditat- 
ing over them, as her father did. This was one of 
her chief "sins." Governesses found the child quite 
unm^jUageable in this particular. She would per- 
sistently disappear from the rest of the group, and 
have to be hunted for with excitement and anxiety, 
until she was finally discovered and driven back to 
the fold. One German governess was so vexed by 
her habit of suddenly vanishing that she exclaimed, 
"Katya is a spider !" 

Her mother could not understand this eccentric 
child. What added to her concern was that the little 
girl's neck was slightly crooked. '' Malheureuse en- 
fant!'* she would sigh, with a mournful shake of the 
head. And Katya, hearing it, would wonder, "What 
are they bothering about .f^" Her crooked neck never 
troubled her. She was wholly indifferent as to her 
looks. 

She used to run off to the meadows and watch the 
cows grazing, and then go to the huts of the serfs, 
and mingle with the peasant children and their mothers, 
studying their life, and entering into every peasant 
woman's troubles. 

From earliest childhood she was vividly impressed 
by the sharp contrast between the condition of her 
father's hundreds of serfs and that of her own family. 
Sometimes she would seize a little peasant boy by 
the hand and hurry him into her beautiful home. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 5 

leading him through the exquisitely furnished rooms 
till she found her mother sitting in the parlor, reading 
or knitting. Then she would beg her mother to look 
at the poor little fellow, whose legs were so skinny, 
his stomach so big, his face so dirty and hollow, and 
his clothing nothing but rags. To her mother this 
seemed natural. The unnatural thing was for a rich 
little girl to drag a dirty peasant child into her mother's 
parlor. 

Her mother had taught her to be kind and courteous 
to the servants, and she loved to pass her time with 
them; but whenever her mother found her among 
them, she drew her away, saying, "Katya, this is 
no place for you." 

She wrote in after years : "We lived in a large 
house, richly decorated and handsomely furnished, 
surrounded by beautiful parks and gardens. It was 
always open to receive visits from other families of 
the nobility who were scattered about the district 
where we lived, and to guests from other parts of the 
empire, especially during the great fetes which were 
given several times a year. Their carriages filled the 
court-yard, their servants of every degree crowded 
the corridors and anterooms, and ladies in elegant 
toilets and men in full dress surrounded the enormous 
tables, which groaned beneath the weight of the festal 
meats, prepared by cooks who had served their ap- 
prenticeship in St. Petersburg, Warsaw, and even 
Paris. The Russian nobility loved luxury, and they 
knew how to secure admirable service. Orchestras, 
troops of actors and singers were found in the homes 
of the Russian gentry. Yet all these actors and 
musicians, as well as the cooks, valets and nurses, 



6 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

were Russian peasants, transformed by the will of 
their masters that they might make a brave show, a 
little court, in imitation of that of the Czar. 

"But the life of the manor-house was not the only 
one to attract the attention of a child with vivid 
imagination, warm heart and active mind. Scattered 
about my father's estate, as about every other landed 
proprietor's dwelling, were so-called villages, long 
streets of miserable huts where lived great robust 
creatures clad in coarse garments, uncombed, almost 
unwashed, who, if they saw their master or any of 
his family coming, would hastily pull off their head 
covering and bow almost to the ground. These were 
the peasants who tilled the soil. Rising before the 
sun, they could not go to bed till late at night, for 
they had to pass all their time at work in the fields, 
the meadows, the woods, the granaries, the stables, 
the parks, the pastures. They worked everywhere 
and always. They were scolded, they were whipped, 
they were exiled to Siberia, at the whim of their master, 
for the least fault. Their wives and daughters were 
taken to serve the master or his sons as mistresses ; 
their children were carried off without their consent 
to be trained as servants or to serve in the house. 
The men would come to the master begging bread 
for which their families were famishing; the women 
would come weeping, demanding their children of 
whom they had been robbed. How many times, 
stupefied and shocked, I have been the witness of 
such humiliating, degrading, excruciating things ! 
How many times I have thrown myself at my father's 
feet to implore pardon for a so-called culprit, whose 
only fault, perhaps, was to have fallen asleep while 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 7 

herding the sheep ! How many times I have been 
indignant to see how hundreds of peasants would be 
kept waiting in the court-yard, bare-headed and 
shivering with cold, waiting for the master to appear, 
who, after making them wait all day, would send 
them off without a word, so taken up was he with 
gambling at cards with other lords, who in their turn 
were making their coachmen wait on the carriage 
box till their hands were frozen ! 

"These things tormented my childish mind, and 
pursued me even into my bed, where I would lie awake 
for hours, unable to sleep for thinking of all the horrors 
about me. 

"I had wide opportunity to observe the life of the 
peasantry, for they came in groups to discuss every 
event relating to their communal life with my father, 
and during such hours I was always at his side, that 
I might hear what the peasants had to say. There 
were questions about the fields, the pastures, the 
woods, the building of cabins, the taxes they must 
pay, the roads to be built, the marshes to be drained. 
Then there were questions about recruiting; for in 
those days it was only the peasants who gave their 
sons to the Russian army. Child as I was, I could 
not understand why these honest folk should bear the 
entire burden of work and of taxes. I saw that my 
father, good though he was, put much more heart 
into looking after his own interests than the interests 
of his serfs, and I was shocked at the inequality be- 
tween the rich and the poor. 

"Often I escaped from home and went alone to the 
neighboring villages to visit the huts of our peasants; 
and there I would see old men lying on the straw, 



8 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

friendless and famished, while all through the long 
summer days the entire population strong enough to 
work was in the fields, where they would have to toil 
till the night fell. The little children, dirty, emaci- 
ated, would be quarreling in the mud or dust, eating 
from the same dish with the dogs, and even the pigs. 
Every Sunday I would see the peasants going into 
our church, praying with fervor, pouring out their 
tears, and giving their last kopek in the name of God 
that there might be a better life in the next world, 
since that was their only hope of happiness. 

" From the age of eight, how to find justice was the 
question that troubled me." 

Yet the Verigos treated their serfs with much more 
consideration than most Russian landowners. Her 
father never had a serf flogged. Their serfs appreciated 
the difference, and constantly boasted of it. "We 
belong to the Verigos!" they would say with pride. 
When Katya, in conversation with the neighbors, 
referred to the contrast between the condition of her 
father's serfs and theirs, she would be cut short with 
the retort, "Well, your estate is a republic!" Yet 
even among the Verigos there was not a really warm 
and friendly feeling toward the peasants, except on 
Katya's part. 

The selfish desire to grab everything, which often 
shows itself in children at one stage of their develop- 
ment, was unknown to Katya. Her tendency was to 
give away everything that came into her hands. If 
she were given some crisp delicacy, fresh from the 
oven, she would immediately present it to one of the 
servants. If she got a new toy, she passed it on to 
some peasant child before the day was out. Often 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 9 

she came home without her cloak or without her dress, 
having given it away to some shivering, half-clad 
creature. Rebuked by her mother, she answered, 
"Mamma, you read to us from the gospel that if 
any one has two garments he should give one to the 
poor. Why are you angry if I do just what you read 
to us?" 

Katya cared little for dolls or playthings, but was 
very fond of living creatures. She longed for a kitten 
or a calf. At five years old she begged her mother 
to give her the entire charge of a young calf. At 
first her mother would not hear of it. Finally she 
yielded in part. The children were taken to the 
barnyard and told that each might choose a calf. 
They were then brought into the house and instructed 
to work the names of their pets upon cloth collars, 
and afterwards they were allov»^ed to adorn the calves 
with the collars. Their mother thought this was 
quite enough, and forbade the children to go near 
the calves any more. 

Katya was not satisfied. She yearned to have a 
little calf of her own, that she could take care of and 
make a companion. One day as she wandered through 
the fields, she came upon a thick branch broken from 
a tree, with twigs growing in such a way as to give 
it a rough resemblance to an animal. Her heart beat 
with joy. Here at last was her calf! She propped 
it up against the tree, and hurried to the house for 
provisions. She set food before it in one dish and 
milk in another. Three times a day she fed it, visit- 
ing it secretly, and weaving around it all sorts of 
fancies. 

But one day when she was with her governess and 



10 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

the other children, she was seized with an irresistible 
wish to visit her calf. Half unconsciously, she led 
them towards it. As soon as they caught sight of it, 
they all exclaimed, "Ah, Katya's calf! It is Katya's 
calf ! " Katya felt abashed. Her illusion was shat- 
tered, and her wooden calf gave her no further pleasure. 

She was always dreaming of helping some one. 
After the loss of her calf, this dream absorbed her 
whole being. 

She was more interested in people than in anything 
else. When the family made journeys in their coach, 
she often caught sight of Jews, and she was moved to 
great curiosity by their singularities. She looked with 
awe upon these people who spoke a strange language, 
wore outlandish clothes, and ate food prepared accord- 
ing to peculiar rules. 

Once she saw a group of men with shaven heads 
and bare feet, laden with heavy chains, driven along 
the street, under guard. She was much impressed 
by the sorrowful sight, and asked her mother who 
they were. 

*' They are unfortunate people — lost people, who 
have taken the wrong path in life," her mother an- 
swered. But the response did not dispel the mystery. 
She was constantly asking questions to which she got 
no answer. 

Her chief concern, however, was for the great class 
of peasants. Her dream was to help them and 
make them happy. She imagined herself the mistress 
of a vast estate, where all the unfortunate serfs in 
the world might live, wearing beautiful clothes, hav- 
ing plenty to eat, and passing their days free from 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 11 

On quiet summer afternoons she would lie down 
with the tall grass all around her, and look up into 
the sky, with its flocks of fleecy clouds. In the dis- 
tance there was a hill over which a coach occasionally 
passed. Every cloud that drifted by seemed to bear 
the form of some definite object — a tree, a giant, a 
city, hills and valleys — whatever she had heard or 
read about. Against these clouds as a background 
she built her castles in the air. 

She had heard of America, and how Columbus and 
his companions went there in search of gold, and 
found treasure in abundance ; and she planned to go 
to California, and there heap up fortunes to bring 
back with her for the serfs. She would buy vast 
tracts of land — there they were, in the clouds, mostly 
islands — and there the peasants should live and 
cultivate the fertile soil. As she gazed into the many- 
colored clouds, she saw the very world that she hoped 
to create. 

Katya talked freely of her plans about California, 
and when her family made fun of them, she answered 
naively, "But many people have brought gold from 
that land!" 



CHAPTER II 

The estate of the Verigos was an oasis in the desert. 
Among the families that they visited, Katya saw very 
different scenes. 

A neighbor and relative of the Verigos was Madame 
Shiria, a widow with an idiot son. She had the dis- 
posal of his immense fortune, and squandered it reck- 
lessly. Other relatives tried to have a guardian 
appointed for him. It was the government's custom 
to let all matters be decided by the nobility rather than 
by experts. Instead of having a commission of doctors 
determine whether the young man was mentally defi- 
cient, the authorities decreed that the question should 
be settled by his acquaintances. Then on every side 
there were disputes, one person crying, "Fedia is an 
idiot !" and another protesting, "Fedia is not an idiot !" 
The line of cleavage was between those who expected 
to inherit something from Fedia's estate and those who 
hoped to get a handsome present from Fedia's mother. 
Madame Shiria hired a young man to personate her 
son, and placed him in a notary's office as proof that 
he was quite able to manage his own affairs. Mean- 
while she continued to squander his property. She 
lived like a queen. During a single winter in Berlin 
she spent two hundred thousand rubles. She was a 
woman of rare beauty, and captivated the heart of the 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 13 

German Emperor; but she filled honest little Katya 
with disgust. 

Once during a grand ball at Madame Shiria's, Katya 
ran from room to room, looking and listening, as was 
her custom. The band was playing, couples were 
dancing, and laughter and merrymaking reigned 
supreme. At last Katya reached the outer room. In 
the shadow of the doorway stood a sorrowful figure with 
bowed head. It was a serf waiting to see Madame 
Shiria. He had been waiting there all day in the same 
attitude. He was in tatters, and through the rents in 
his rags his limbs looked like those of a skeleton. At 
last Madame Shiria's silken train was heard sweeping 
along the polished floor, and she appeared. The 
starving peasant trembled, and a faint light of hope 
flickered in his eyes. She asked in a chilling tone, 
"What do you want here?" He threw himself at her 
feet, and broke into a storm of sobs. 

"My lady, God bless you ! Have pity on me. My 
cow is dead. Help me, I beg of you ! " 

Madame Shiria stepped back with disdain. "How 
do these things concern me.^* Go to my steward. 
Go." 

The serf had already been to the steward, who had 
sent him to the lady. Katya and her sisters pleaded 
for the unfortunate man, but he was put out of the 
house, and Madame Shiria went back to her ballroom. 
Katya's heart felt as if it were weighed down by a 
heavy stone. 

Another neighbor was fat Duke Saratov, whose 
"god was his belly." Poor himself, he had married a 
rich countess, and built a luxurious palace with his 
wife's money. He kept an orchestra, and gave magnifi- 



14 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

cent banquets and balls. On every holiday a fortune 
was spent on the champagne alone. And all this 
fountain of squandered wealth flowed from a source 
buried in muddy huts and squalid poverty — from the 
meek and oppressed peasants. Their last penny, 
their last bit of cloth, cheese, butter, and bread went 
into his storehouse, while they were starving. He 
plundered not only the peasants but the merchants. 
If a merchant came to buy wheat, the Duke would 
exact a large deposit in advance, promising prompt 
delivery of the wheat in return. Then he would sell 
the same wheat over and over again to half a dozen 
other merchants, taking a deposit from each, and, of 
course, failing to deliver the grain. The merchants had 
no redress against a nobleman. The Duke was a fre- 
quent visitor at Madame Shiria's, where a circle of the 
more worthless nobility used to gather. Katya knew 
this group. She often heard their behavior discussed 
and condemned in her own home. 

Another nobleman was a kleptomaniac, to put it 
delicately. Wherever he went, his friends had to 
keep an eye on their silver spoons and candlesticks. 
. There were a few nobles of a better type. Constan- 
tine Verigo liked Nicholas Kovalik — the father of that 
Kovalik who afterwards became a leader in the rev- 
olutionary movement of the seventies. Young Kova- 
lik's mother and Katya's mother had been schoolmates. 
The friendship between the two families was so close 
that, although their estates lay far apart, visits were 
frequent; and the simplicity and sincerity of the 
Kovaliks made a lasting impression on Katya. 

When the nobles of the better sort got together, she 
noticed that they often discussed certain matters in 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 15 

subdued tones and behind closed doors. Sometimes 
one would read aloud an article not wholly favorable 
to the Czar, or recite a poem by Pushkin or Chamikon. 
Those were the days of the terrible Czar Nicholas. 
Nobody dared to say a word against him in public, but 
the nobles condemned him in secret. Then came the 
Crimean War, and the great siege of Sebastopol ; and 
those same nobles freely offered the Czar regiments of 
serfs gathered from their estates. Thousands of 
peasants wearing red girdles and red hatbands were 
torn from their families, armed with guns and axes, 
and sent forth to do or die, in the name of God and the 
Czar. These contradictions between men's thoughts 
and their actions grated on the young girl's feelings, 
and made her wonder. 

Another acquaintance of the Verigos was a Duchess 
Galitzin, living on a grand estate near Lugovetz in 
the Starodubov district, in a palace that an emperor 
might have envied. She was a member of the highest 
aristocracy, as intimate with the Czar's family as with 
her own. When Katya was still very young, the 
Duchess invited Constantine Verigo to take charge 
of her vast estate as her steward, and Verigo, having, 
but little to do, consented. 

He rode to Lugovetz, taking his family with him. 
Katya now had a chance to see what was considered the 
highest society; and when they afterwards went to 
Petrograd, she found herself among the very flower of 
the aristocracy. The old Duchess had ladies in wait- 
ing of various degrees, and innumerable servants and 
attendants, all graded and classified. Before any 
one entered her august presence, it was necessary to go 
through a long series of scrutinies and cross-examina- 



16 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

tions. The only rebel against these ceremonies was 
little Katya. She objected to bowing before the 
Duchess as before a goddess. Her mother told her 
that the Duchess was her elder in years, and demanded 
reverence; but Katya felt that the old lady preferred 
submission to reverence, and fear to love. 

The mother had brought the children up on the Bible 
and religious stories ; but in the Duchess's library they 
found material of every kind. There were pictures of 
foreign countries, landscapes and love scenes, romances 
and books of history and travel. At nine years old 
Katya had read the whole of Karanzin's "History of 
Russia", in several volumes. She read books of travel 
with eagerness, and remembered the details so well that 
once, years after, when she talked about foreign coun- 
tries with the captain of a ship, he felt sure that she 
must have actually visited the places she described. 
Her practical mind led her also to devour discussions 
of the market price of wheat, of land, etc., and to study 
her father's business records and letters. She did not 
care for fiction. What interested her was real life. 

As she learned more, she grew more and more heart- 
sick over the way the peasants were treated. When 
she was but ten years old, her indignation against the 
flogging of the serfs broke out in such hot words that 
her old peasant nurse begged her to speak low. 

"My father helped me to think," she says. "He 
was a man of broad, liberal ideas. We read together 
many books of science and travel. Social science 
absorbed me. By sixteen I had read much of Voltaire, 
Rousseau, and Diderot, and I knew the French Revolu- 
tion by heart. I spoke French from babyhood, and 
my German governess had taught me German; and 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 17 

at that time the world's best thought was not garbled by 
the Russian censorship. 

"Fired by such ideas, I saw the poor, degraded 
slaves around me, and longed to set them free. At first 
I believed that freedom could be reached without a 
radical change of government. No revolutionary 
spirit had yet been kindled. It was the first great 
era of the Liberals. The emancipation of the serfs 
was soon to take place ; so too the introduction of trial 
by jiu-y ; and these promised reforms sent a social im- 
pulse sweeping through Russia. I was thrilled by the 
glad news. Filled with young enthusiasm, I opened a 
little school near our estate. 

"I found the peasant an abject, ignorant creature, 
who did not understand even the meagre rights he 
already had. He could think only of his mud hut and 
his plot of ground. As for the government, he- knew 
only that in peace he must pay money ; in war, lives. 
The new rumors had kindled his old heart-deep hope 
of freedom. The twenty peasants in my school, like 
the millions in Russia, suspected that the proclamation 
had been hidden, and often went to the landowners 
demanding their freedom. At last the manifesto 
emancipating the serfs arrived." 

This was in 1861, when Catherine was seventeen. It 
was an era of hope and enthusiasm among the Russian 
Liberals. But in some respects emancipation made the 
lot of the peasants worse instead of better. Under the 
old regime, each serf, besides cultivating his master's 
estates, had had a plot of ground on which he raised 
food for his own family. He had supposed that this 
plot of ground would still belong to him. He soon 
found his mistake. 



18 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

"The peasant was free. No longer bound to the 
land, his landlord ordered him off. He was shown a 
little strip of the poorest soil, there to be free and starve. 
He was bewildered; he could not imagine himself 
without his old plot of land. For centuries past, an 
estate had always been described as containing so 
many 'souls.' It was sold for so much per 'soul.' 
The 'soul' and the plot had always gone together. So 
the peasant had thought that his soul and his plot 
would be freed together. In dull but growing rage, 
he refused to leave his plot of land for the wretched 
strip. 'Masters,' he cried, 'how can I nourish my little 
ones through a Russian winter.'^ Such land means 
death.' This cry rose all over Russia. 

"The government appointed in every district an 
'arbiter' to persuade the peasants. The arbiter failed. 
Then troops were quartered in their huts, families 
were starved, old people were beaten by drunkards, 
daughters were raped. The peasants grew more wild, 
and then began the flogging. In a village near ours, 
where they refused to leave their plots, they were 
driven into line on the village street; every tenth 
man was called out and flogged with the knout ; some 
died. Two weeks later, as they still held out, every 
fifth man was flogged. The poor ignorant creatures 
still held desperately to what they thought their rights ; 
again the line, and now every man was dragged forward 
to the flogging. This process went on for five years all 
over Russia, until at last, bleeding and exhausted, the 
peasants gave in. 

"I heard heartrending stories in my little school- 
house, and many more through my father, the arbiter 
of our district. The peasants thronged to our house 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 19 

day and night. Many were carried in, crippled by the 
knout. Sobbing wives told of husbands killed before 
their eyes. Often the poor wretches literally grovelled, 
clasping my father's knees, begging him to read the 
manifesto again and find it was a mistake, beseeching 
him to search for help in that mysterious region, the 
law court. From such interviews he came to me worn 
and haggard. 

"I now saw how ineffectual were my attempts; I 
felt that tremendous economic and political changes 
must be made; but I was still a Liberal, and thought 
only of reform, not of revolution. To seek guidance, to 
find out what .older heads were thinking, I went at 
nineteen with my mother and sister to St. Petersburg. 
Into our compartment on the train came a handsome 
young prince returning from official duties in Siberia. 
For hours he discussed with me the problems that were 
rushing upon us. His words thrilled like fire. Our 
excited voices rose steadily higher, until my mother 
begged me, as my nurse had done before, to speak low. 
That young prince was Peter Kropotkin." 

In Petrograd, Catherine joined the central group of 
Liberals, men and women of noble birth and university 
training ; doctors, lawyers, journalists, novelists, poets, 
scientists. Since higher education for women was 
strictly forbidden, they had already become law- 
breakers by opening classes for women in the natural 
and political sciences. All these classes she attended. 

Her mother fell ill and had to go home. She wanted 
to take Catherine with her ; but the young girl objected. 
She longed for independence; she believed it to be a 
duty to earn her own living. Many of the younger 
nobility had come to the same conviction. Prince 



20 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

Kropotkin, in his "Memoirs of a Revolutionist", 
quotes the words of the Russian poet, Nekrasof, 
*'The bread that has been made by slaves is bitter." 
He adds : 

"The young generation actually refused to eat that 
bread, and to enjoy the riches that had been accumu- 
lated in their fathers' houses by means of servile labor, 
whether the laborers were actual serfs, or slaves of the 
present industrial system. 

"All Russia read with astonishment, in the indict- 
ment produced in court against Karakozoff and his 
friends, that these young men, owners of considerable 
fortunes, used to live three or four in a room, never 
spending more than five dollars apiece a month for all 
their needs, and giving their fortunes to start coopera- 
tive associations, cooperative workshops (where they 
themselves worked), and the like. Five years later, 
thousands and thousands of the Russian youth — 
the best part of it — were doing the same. During 
the years 1860-1865, in almost every wealthy family a 
bitter struggle was going on between the fathers, who 
wanted to maintain the old traditions, and the sons 
and daughters, who defended their right to dispose of 
their lives according to their own ideals. Young men 
left the military service, the counter, the shop, and 
flocked to the university towns. - Girls bred in the most 
aristocratic families rushed penniless to St. Petersburg, 
Moscow, and Kiev, eager to learn a profession. . . . 
After hard and bitter struggles, many of them won 
personal freedom. Now they wanted to utilize it, 
not for their own personal enjoyment, but to carry to 
the people the knowledge that had emancipated them." 

Catherine compromised with her mother by entering 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 21 

a nobleman's liousehold as governess to his children. 
It was useful work, and it enabled her to stay in the 
city. She held this position for two years and a half, 
and was well treated, her character commanding both 
affection and respect. Meanwhile she studied the 
working of the zemstvo. Every institution that was a 
beginning of representative government, however im- 
perfect, was holy in the eyes of the Russian "intellec- 
tuals." 

Her father finally insisted upon her returning home. 
He promised that she should be independent, and live 
on her own earnings. He helped her to open a board- 
ing school for girls, and through the influence of her 
relatives she obtained many pupils, daughters of rich 
parents, who paid for their instruction. Her father 
also built her a cottage where she taught the peasant 
children free. All that she earned above her livelihood 
she devoted to helping the peasants. She would buy 
a cow for one, a horse for another, doing her utmost 
to relieve the misery around her. "I now drew closer 
to the people," she says. "I began to realize the dull 
memory every peasant has of flogging and toil from 
time immemorial. I felt their subconscious but heart- 
deep longing for freedom." 

Three years later, at the age of twenty-five, she 
married a liberal, broad-minded young nobleman, with 
a good education and a good heart. He was active 
in the district zemstvo, and took a sincere interest in 
the peasants. He was glad to help Catherine in her 
good work, and they established a cooperative bank 
and a peasants' agricultural school. Several of the 
younger landowners became interested, and they met 
together frequently. 



S^ LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OP RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

Catherine, however, felt the need of doing something 
more radical. In quest of more light and more helpers, 
she went to Kiev, where one of her sisters was nursing 
a husband lying at the point of death. Catherine 
attended the funeral, and comforted the widow. Just 
then she got a letter from Kovalik, the friend of her 
childhood, announcing that he and several others who 
were profoundly dissatisfied with the state of things in 
Russia were going to America to found a colony where 
everybody would work with their hands as well as 
their brains — a sort of Brook Farm. He invited her 
to join them. She replied : 

"Never. How can we leave Russia now, when there 
is so much of importance to be done here, that is hardly 
even begun? In America they are better off without 
us than the people in Russia are with us." 

Meanwhile she looked about her in Kiev for recruits 
to the cause of progress. She knew no one in the city, 
but she determined to search for "good people." The 
university students had established a lunch room where 
meals could be had for six rubles a month. Any out- 
sider could eat there at the same price. Catherine 
paid for a month's board in advance, and came every 
day, to eat and observe. The room occupied the whole 
ground floor of an old wooden building. The tables 
were long rough-hewn fixtures, with tablecloths not over 
clean. At each corner stood piles of thick, heavy white 
plates, and at meal times these would be dropped along 
in a row with a great clatter, amid the din made by the 
students, talking, discussing, and waxing hot in argu- 
ment, seemingly much more interested in feeding their 
minds than their stomachs. Catherine was wearing 
her old-fashioned Atlas fur, with its short sleeves, 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 23 

sable collar, and satin hood — a garb long out of style ; 
but neither she nor the students cared about fashion. 
Dinner was served from one to five p.m., and she ate 
leisurely, meanwhile watching the students' faces, 
listening to their talk, and trying to judge of their 
characters. After a while she wrote on slips of paper 
her name and the address of the hotel where she and 
her sister were staying, and the next day at dinner time 
she distributed the slips to the students who had made 
the most favorable impression upon her, saying, " Come 
to see me, and let us talk things over." 

Five students came the same evening. They were 
frank, sympathetic young men, students not only of 
books but of life. She came to the point at once. 
**Why are you doing nothing," she said, "when the 
great mass of the people in Russia are starving, with 
the yoke on their necks and the wolf at the door.f* 
Why are you idlers ? Why do you use the academic to 
screen your eyes from the real.?" 

All gave the same answer : " We are idlers ; but what 
is to be done.f* How can we make things better.''" 
Some of them were acquainted with revolutionists : 
but they were not sure whether they wanted to become 
revolutionists themselves or not. 

No immediate answer could be given to their ques- 
tion, "What is to be done ?" But they began to culti- 
vate a closer acquaintance with the revolutionists, and 
introduced Catherine to them. 

Soon she was summoned home. Then she and her 
husband and their little circle of Liberals made a 
vigorous effort to secure better treatment for the peas- 
ants through political action. 

She says : " It is a poor patriot that will not thor- 



24 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

oughly try his government before he rises against it. 
We searched the laws and edicts; we found certain 
scant and long-neglected peasants' rights of local suf- 
frage ; and then we began showing the peasants how to 
use these rights that they already had." 

Catherine proved an effective speaker at the meetings 
they held among the peasants. She had a clear, 
strong voice; she could talk to the people in words 
that they understood; and she exercised the power 
that always emanates from a great personality and a 
great heart. 

The peasants flocked to the local elections, and began 
electing men of liberal views as judges, arbiters, and 
other officials. One of Catherine's brothers was chosen 
as a judge, and so was her friend Kovalik, whose plan 
of starting a colony in America had encountered many 
difficulties and had been indefinitely postponed. While 
he was on a visit to the Verigos, Catherine persuaded 
him to become a candidate. As a resident of another 
province he was disqualified; but Constantine Verigo 
made a nominal lease of his estate to Kovalik, and thus 
rendered him eligible. He was a man of marked ability, 
and a natural leader. The other judges elected him 
as their chief; and in three months he cleared up an 
accumulation of eight hundred cases that had clogged 
the docket for years. He and the other Liberal officials 
decided all cases with strict justice to the peasants, 
and defended their legal rights against the oppression 
of the nobility. But when the more despotic land- 
owners were ousted from the positions that they had 
made a source of graft, they denounced the little group 
of Liberals to the Minister of the Interior as a band of 
conspirators against the government. In less than a 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 25 

year, Kovalik was turned out of his judgeship on a 
technicality; Constantine Verigo was deposed from 
office, as a dangerous man; several of their friends 
were exiled to Siberia without trial ; Catherine and 
her husband were put under police surveillance, and 
the school and the bank that they had opened for the 
peasants were closed. 

A rigid inquiry was also instituted as to the kind of 
addresses that Catherine had been making to the 
peasants, and the Governor of the province himself 
asked Constantine Verigo for an explanation. Verigo 
said that his daughter had felt it her duty to expound 
the new laws to the peasants, so that they might have 
a clearer understanding of their rights. The Governor 
answered dryly, "We want no apostles here." He 
intimated bluntly to Verigo that the less he and his 
household meddled with peasant questions the better it 
would be for them, and for the peasants too. 

Tliis experience convinced Catherine of the necessity 
of a change in the existing form of government, before 
any serious improvement could be brought about. All 
over Russia the attempts made by liberal-minded men 
and women to educate and elevate the peasants by 
peaceful means were meeting with the same fate. 
Punished as criminals for teaching the peasants their 
legal rights, they learned to see the autocratic govern- 
ment as it really was, a vast system of corruption, 
watching jealously through spies and secret police to 
keep its peasant victims from being taught anything 
that could make them think or act like men. 

To try to overthrow the autocracy was to face im- 
prisonment, torture, exile, and death. Catherine was 
twenty-six years old. Her husband, like herself, had a 



26 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

whole life before him. She felt that it was only fair 
to put the matter frankly before him. She asked him if 
he was ready to expose himself to these tremendous 
consequences. He answered that he was not. "I 
am," she said; and she started out upon the under- 
taking without him. 

She secured letters of introduction to such noblemen 
as had shown a wish to improve the condition of the 
peasants, and traveled about the country visiting their 
estates, and studying whatever they had done in the 
way of starting schools, cooperative workshops, and the 
like. She tried to impress upon them that the funda- 
mental need was for the peasants to own the land; 
but she could not make the nobles see it. She also 
found that the heavy hand of the government was 
always ready to shut down upon even their mildest 
efforts at improvement. She came home feeling that 
she had gained nothing but experience and an added 
knowledge of life. 

By this time the spirit of revolution was fairly awake. 
A Liberal named Nechayev had gathered together a 
group of revolutionists. They were discovered and 
arrested, and their trial in 1871 was the first great event 
in the long struggle for freedom. The procession of 
political exiles along the Great Siberian Road had begun. 
Meanwhile their revolutionary documents had been 
published, and were read by thousands of Liberals 
throughout Russia. 

Catherine went to Kiev, and joined a revolutionary 
group. 



CHAPTER III 

The revolutionists at this time were divided into 
Lavrists and Bakuninites, according as they favored 
the program of Peter Lavrov or Michael Bakunin. The 
Lavi'ists believed that the peasants must be gradually 
educated for freedom and revolution. The Bakuninites 
believed in organizing the peasants for revolution as 
promptly as possible. They held that they would 
soon be ripe for revolt, because of the prevailing misery. 
"Hunger is the most efficient teacher," they said. 
"Tell the peasant why he is hungry, and show him how 
he can feed himself, and he will learn quite readily." 

Lavrov and Bakunin, who were then living in Switzer- 
land as political refugees, were good friends despite 
their difference of view, and so were most of their 
followers. It was a difference of method only; their 
aim was the same. Both Lavrists and Bakuninites 
felt that the nobles had been living in wealth and ease 
for centuries on the labor of the peasants ; that it was 
only through oppression and robbery of the peasants 
.that they were able to pass their time in luxury and 
amusement; and the younger generation looked upon 
it as their duty to make reparation to the peasants, so 
far as possible, and to give their lives to bring them 
freedom and happiness. 

Catherine, like most of those who had lived close 
to the peasants, was a Bakuninite. In Kiev she soon 

27 



28 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

gathered around her a group of young men and women 
who loved and admired her. Among these her special 
friend was Maria Kalyenkina, a girl who later became 
famous for her courage and her faith in the revolution. 
She had been a village school-teacher. Under the in- 
fluence of Nekrasof 's songs of the peasants, she became 
an ardent revolutionist, and went to Kiev to absorb 
the most advanced revolutionary ideas of the day. She 
entered a school for midwives, and there met Catherine's 
sister Olga. Thus she became acquainted with Cather- 
ine, who was nine years older than "little Masha", 
but found in her a kindred spirit. Masha was quiet, 
sweet-tempered, industrious, and daring beyond all 
others in a crisis. She talked little, and did much. A 
secret entrusted to her was as safe as in the grave. She 
was a pretty girl, of rather frail physique, with a remark- 
ably fair skin and yellow hair. She took no sentimental 
interest in the young men, though many of them took 
a sentimental interest in her. When Catherine com- 
mented upon her indifference to men, she answered, 
"I love the movement." To this day her old friend 
speaks with enthusiasm of this sweet girl, gentle as a 
lamb, yet brave as a lioness. 

From a smouldering hotbed of revolution, Kiev had 
now become a seething volcano. It was full of young 
enthusiasts who were determined to do or die. The 
movement *'To the people !" which had been sweeping 
all over Russia was at its height in Kiev, Russian 
young men and women were studying at Swiss uni- 
versities, and drinking in republican ideas. Many 
young Russians also made pilgrimages to Switzerland 
to visit Lavrov and Bakunin, and came back full of 
revolutionary zeal. The Russian government became 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 29 

alarmed, and issued an order that all Russian students 
in Switzerland must return by a certain date, or they 
would not be allowed to cross the frontier from Switzer- 
land into Russia. The Russian students, however, 
used to stay as long as they liked, and then come back 
by way of Austria, getting across the Austrian frontier 
with comparative ease; and Kiev was their first 
stopping place. The revolutionists "made in Switzer- 
land" were smuggled into Russia by way of Kiev. 

The movement "To the people!" had changed in 
character. After the emancipation of the serfs, thou- 
sands of young men and women from the richer classes 
had asked themselves how they could be most useful 
to "the masses", and decided that the only way was to 
go and settle among the poor, and live as they did. 
Prince Kropotkin says : 

"Young men went into the villages as doctors, 
doctors' helpers, teachers, village scribes, even as 
agricultural laborers, blacksmiths, wood-cutters, and 
so on, and tried to live there in close contact with the 
peasants. Girls passed teachers' examinations, learned 
midwifery or nursing, and went by the hundred into 
the villages, devoting themselves entirely to the poorest 
part of the population. 

"These people went without any ideal of social re- 
construction in their minds, or any thought of revolution. 
They simply wanted to teach the mass of the peasants to 
read, to interest them in other things, to give them 
medical help, and in any way to aid in raising them from 
their darkness and misery; and at the same time to 
learn what were their popular ideals of a better social 
life." 

This movement was entirely legal, and was carried 



30 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

on openly. But it was frowned upon by the govern- 
ment, and the would-be helpers of the peasants were 
ruthlessly suppressed. Then most of them became 
revolutionists. The experience of Catherine and her 
friends in this respect was typical. 

Thereupon great numbers, including many of the 
nobility, disguised themselves as peasants, and lived 
and worked side by side with the poorest of the people, 
secretly preparing them for revolution. They felt 
that in this way they could get a better understanding 
of peasant conditions, since those who wear the shoe 
know where it pinches. They also felt that it would be 
unworthy to live in ease and comfort themselves while 
urging the peasants to face the greatest dangers and 
sacrifices. "We shall have the right to agitate among 
them when we are of them," said Catherine. More- 
over, this was the only way to overcome the peasants' 
timid distrust. Victimized for so many centuries, 
the ex-serfs were as much afraid of the revolutionists 
as they were of the government. The peasant was 
almost like a dumb animal. If he cherished any 
thoughts of revolt, he hardly dared tell them to any 
one, and he certainly would never confide them to a 
nobleman. 

Before entering upon the active revolutionary work 
which would take her away from home for good, and 
which was almost sure to end in exile or death, Catherine 
made a round of farewell visits among her relatives and 
friends. First she went to bid good-bye to her elder 
sister Natalie, who ' lived in the district of Novo- 
Aleksandriya, in the province of Kovno. From there 
she went to Lugovetz for a last interview with her 
parents and her husband. It was a sad and memorable 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION SI 

meeting. Three years before, when Catherine's school 
had been suppressed and her father dismissed from 
office, she had told her husband that she was ready 
to lay down her life for the cause. The time had now 
come when she was to make the sacrifice. Her hus- 
band was overcome with grief. He begged her to give 
up her intention, and go with him to their estate in the 
province of Moghilev. He was a man of noble character, 
but he lacked the iron determination needed to face the 
terrible consequences of working for freedom under the 
shadow of the Czar. Her family pleaded a still stronger 
argument; they reminded her that she was soon to 
become a mother. On the one side was a life of domestic 
love, amid wealth, luxury, and splendor ; on the other, 
prison and exile. Many would have said that duty 
bade her stay. She was profoundly convinced that the 
call of the greatest and gravest duty bade her go. 
Thus believing, she was resolute. With an aching heart, 
she bade them all farewell. She never saw any of them 
again. Her husband died soon after she was sent to 
Siberia ; and before she returned, her parents also had 
passed away. 

In Kiev, Catherine lived with her widowed sister Olga 
and her young friend, Masha Kalyenkina. Around 
these three as a nucleus there grew up a circle that be- 
came known as "the commune." It was the revolu- 
tionary center of Kiev, and a powerful influence in the 
awakening of Russia. 

They had to earn a living while carrying on their 
revolutionary work. Catherine cut out little squares 
of paper, and wrote on each her name and address, 
with the announcement that she v/as ready to give expert 
instruction in such and such subjects. She took her 



3^ LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

stand on the corner of a street where there was an 
academy for young ladies, and gave her cards to the 
girls as they came out of school. Her friends laughed 
at this homely way of soliciting work, but it proved 
successful. So many mothers and aunts and elderly 
cousins of the schoolgirls applied for lessons that she 
had to turn many away. She earned on an average 
one hundred and forty rubles a month. This was ample 
for the needs of the modest household. She was busy 
all day and half the night, and always went to bed 
thoroughly tired ; yet she found her health better than 
when she had been a lady of leisure. She had a strong 
constitution, and seemed to thrive on hard and con- 
tinuous work. 

The discussions between the Lavrists and Bakuninites 
were still going on, and sometimes waxed very warm. 
One night when Catherine was about to go to bed, 
more weary than usual, she received a call from Axel- 
rod, the leader of the Lavrists in Kiev. His appearance 
at that unusual hour in a camp of strong Bakuninites 
was a surprise. 

"You must come to an important meeting," he said. 
"We have here two delegates sent from Peter Lavrov, 
and two more from Odessa, and we are to talk over 
some very important matters." 

Axelrod had faith in her breadth of mind. Although 
she belonged to the opposite faction, he knew that she 
placed her love for the peasants above all party lines. 

He led her through dark side streets and deserted 
alleys to an unfinished building without a roof. In one 
of its rooms seven men were waiting. Catherine was 
the only woman. 

She was especially impressed by one of the group. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 33 

He was very young, with blushing cheeks, and spoke in 
the most respectful manner to those present, because 
all of them were his elders. Axelrod introduced him 
with a ring of delight in his voice. "Katya," he said, 
"this young man is a peasant. He was once a serf, 
and used to ride as a footman behind his master's 
coach." 

To revolutionists, in those days, nothing was holier 
or dearer than a peasant — especially a peasant who 
seemed to realize their ideals. For was not this young 
man educated, and full of advanced ideas, and eager to 
aid in spreading liberty and light ? Axelrod was proud 
to introduce him. 

The nobleman who owned this young serf had noticed 
that the boy was exceptionally bright, and had given 
him an education. When he came to Kiev as a dele- 
gate, he was a student at the University of Odessa. He 
seemed modest and plain, and took only a humble part 
in the discussion. No one could guess then that 
seven or eight years later he would become the most 
conspicuous revolutionary figure in Russia. His name 
was Andrei Zhelyabov. When the Czar Alexander II, 
after emancipating the serfs and giving the nation 
hopes of further great reforms, backslid in his later 
life and became a ruthless reactionary, it was Andrei 
Zhelyabov who organized and carried through the con- 
spiracy that resulted in his assassination. 

In the unfinished building in Kiev, the discussion 
turned on the old topic, how best to help the peasants. 
As usual, there were some who believed in cautious 
and deliberate approaches, and others who favored 
quick action. The delegates from Lavrov soared to 
higher and higher regions, and the delegates from 



34 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

Odessa tried bravely but unsuccessfully to follow them. 
As the talk grew more and more philosophical and ab- 
struse, Axelrod and Catherine lost all interest in it, and 
both fell fast asleep. 

Catherine was determined to go out and work among 
the peasants ; but she was advised to wait a little while 
until some further degree of organization should have 
been effected among them. Efforts to this end were 
being made throughout the country, stimulated from 
Petrograd by Kovalik and others of like views. The 
opponents of the Bakuninites called them, half 
mockingly, "flame-seekers", because they sought out 
those villages where a longing for freedom was already 
smouldering in the peasants' hearts, and tried to fan it 
into flame. Catherine was a "flame-seeker." 

In "the commune" life was carried on simply, with- 
out ceremony or affectation. Plain living and high 
thinking were the order of the day. Catherine and 
her friends lived on the poorest fare, while their minds 
were busy with the greatest questions, all centering 
about the problem of the peasants. 

On the outside, the homes of members of "the com- 
mune" differed little from other houses; but inside it 
was like a different world. There were many large 
rooms, and each looked like a workshop. In one were 
carpenters' tools, with noblemen working as apprentices 
to the trade; in another students were learning shoe- 
making; in yet another etchers were preparing metal 
seals to stamp false passports. 

There was a general office where letters and telegrams 
were received, all in cipher. Here young men and 
women could be seen discussing political and economic 
questions. Some were dressed as peasants, others, not 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 35 

yet wholly hardened to discomfort, were wearing a sort 
of compromise costume, while a third group, newcomers, 
were arrayed in the costliest finery of fashion. It was a 
noteworthy gathering of the different grades of radicals 
in their fortress, making preparations for an attack 
upon their colossal foe. A barefooted man in peasant 
garb might be seen talking with a man dressed in the 
height of style, the second listening to the first atten- 
tively and even deferentially, because of his wider knowl- 
edge and experience of peasant conditions. 

The whole community was absorbed in the study of 
the peasant. They would get together in the sitting 
room and sing folksongs, or tell stories of the peasants 
illustrating their simplicity and good nature, or their 
dullness and superstition. There was much laughter. 
The members of the community were merry and full of 
hope. 

One day Leventhal came into the group with his bride, 
the daughter of Doctor Kominer. Both were bare- 
footed, poorly clad, pale and exhausted. They had 
been working all day with the bricklayers, helping to 
put up a big building, carrying heavy pails of water, 
and stamping the lime into a paste with their feet. 
They were worn out, and their limbs felt sore and dis- 
torted. 

"It is no joke, trying to agitate for freedom among 
men who toil so miserably," they said. "Both they 
and we are all tired out. They are used up, they cannot 
listen without falling asleep ; and we are ill, we cannot 
muster strength enough to stand up and talk." 

This was the typical argument of those who advocated 
beginning with minor reforms, improving the condition 
of the workers so that they could get rest after their 



36 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

day's labor. There was a common Russian adage, 
"An empty stomach makes a poor student." Then, 
too, the revolutionists argued, how could they have the 
heart to try to spur up a tired, hungry, worn-out man 
to action, and inspire him with a fighting spirit ? 

To "the commune" came also Vera Pavlovna, who 
was nominally married to an officer. Such marriages 
were frequent in those days. A girl living in the 
country, who was in sympathy with the revolution, 
would wish to go to the city in order to work for it, 
or simply in order to study. Her conservative parents 
would refuse their sanction, and without it she could 
not get a passport. Then some chivalrous man in 
sympathy with the revolution — perhaps an officer, 
sometimes even a nobleman — would offer to marry her, 
with a private understanding between them that the 
union was to be merely nominal. With the marriage, 
the father's legal authority over the girl passed to her 
husband. With his consent, she could take out a 
passport, and go wherever she pleased. He made no 
claim on her, and often they parted after the wedding, 
never to meet again. 

Vera Pavlovna with others went to work in some 
large gardens belonging to monks of the Orthodox 
Greek Church. There they came in contact with 
peasants, and tried to influence them. As the monks 
were often more tyrannical even than the nobles, there 
was cause enough for discontent; but when Vera and 
her friends tried to stir the peasants to action, they 
answered, calmly : "We do not care anything about the 
monks. We are planting and gathering these gardens 
for God." 

Meanwhile a cousin of Catherine's, a woman of 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 37 

enlightenment and benevolence, invited her to visit 
her estate at Goryany, in the district of Vitebsk, 
and to make it a center for her humanitarian activities. 
Catherine made the visit, and was pleased with the 
work that her cousin had done among the peasants. 
Before giving a definite answer, she went to Petrograd 
to get in touch with the leading workers for freedom 
there. She found much revolutionary sentiment fer- 
menting throughout the city. She mentioned her 
cousin's plan to Kovalik. He answered, "Katinka, 
you have done enough of this social reform work. It 
is high time for you to plunge into the thick of battle. 
Why don't you join the ranks ?" 

He meant that she ought to take a peasant's pack 
upon her broad shoulders, and go out to sow the seeds 
of revolution in the hearts of the people. He scorned 
half-way measures of mere benevolence. 

In Petrograd as in Kiev, Catherine soon became the 
center of a circle to whom she was a shining light. Her 
strong, simple character, her winning smile, her daunt- 
less courage, her frank, vigorous, and pointed conversa- 
tion, were admired wherever the "intellectuals" of 
Petrograd came together. 

In her rooms she held gatherings of young people who 
met to discuss the burning questions of the day, to 
decide what ought to be done, and to plan for putting 
their ardent thoughts into ardent deeds. Many of 
them were destined to become famous in the revolu- 
tionary movement. 

While Catherine was in Petrograd, her son was 
born. After recovering from her confinement, she 
returned to Kiev, and joined her brother's wife. Vera, 
of whom she was very fond. It had been agreed that 



38 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

Vera and her husband should undertake the care of 
Catherine's child, and they had promised to treat him 
as if he were their own. Vera w^as living in " the com- 
mune." Catherine found her ill, and nursed her ten- 
derly till she got better. 

A great grief befell Catherine at this time. Her sister 
Olga died of brain fever, calling in her delirium upon 
Catherine, whom she had loved better than any one else. 

"Women have always loved me. I am proud of it," 
said Catherine, in speaking of the strong friendship 
that existed between her and her sisters, her sister-in- 
law, and other women. 

Her sister-in-law stayed in Kiev for some time after 
her recovery. Finally her husband came to take her 
home. Catherine then had the anguish of parting with 
her child. The scene is still vivid in her memory. 
Outside stood the coach, drawn by two restless horses 
that snorted and pawed the ground. Vera and her 
husband were seated in the coach. Catherine came 
out to them with the baby in her arms. She gave the 
child to Vera. For a moment or two there was dead 
silence. Then Catherine burst into tears, weeping and 
sobbing like an inconsolable child. Vera cried, " Katya, 
Katya! what is the jnatter with you?" But the 
mother wept on. Vera gave her a hasty kiss on the 
forehead, and the coach drove rapidly away, rattling 
over the stones. 

Catherine stood dazed and bewildered. Her eyes 
were fixed upon the turning wheels of the coach, and 
when they disappeared in the distance, she still gazed 
after them. It was a bright spring day, but a cold 
autumn seemed to have settled down upon her. She 
felt forlorn and deserted. She says : 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 39 

"My heart felt torn into a thousand pieces. My 
feet were lame, my arms stiff. I could not move 
from the spot. I thought of the warning that had been 
given me when I first spoke of my wish to work for 
the peasants. While I was still a girl, they said, 'Wait ! 
You will get married, and that will tie you down. Your 
young blood will be calmed ; your running brook will 
become a quiet lake.' And the time came when I was 
married, and I was conscious of no change in my spirit. 
I felt for the people's cause as strongly as ever — even 
more strongly. And then friends told me, 'Just wait, 
you will have an estate of your own to care for, and 
that will take up all your time and thoughts.' But my 
husband and I bought an estate, and no such result 
followed ; for I could never let one tiny estate out^^eigh 
the vast plains of all Russia. My spirit and my con- 
victions remained the same. And with time came new 
counsel from friends. Now they argued: 'Yes, you 
have remained unchanged by husband and home, but 
you will succumb to the command of Nature. With 
the birth of a child will come the death of your revolu- 
tionary ideals. The wings you have used for soaring 
high in the air among the clouds you will now use to 
shelter your little one.' And I gave birth to a little 
one. I felt that in that boy my youth was buried, 
and that when he was taken from my body, the fire of 
my spirit had gone out with him. But it was not so. 
The conflict between my love for the child and my love 
for the revolution and for the freedom of Russia robbed 
me of many a night's sleep. I knew that I could not 
be a mother and still be a revolutionist. Those were 
not two tasks to which it was possible to give a divided 
attention. Either the one or the other must absorb 



40 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

one's whole being, one's entire devotion. So I gave my 
child to Vera and my brother, to be brought up as 
their own. 

"I was not the only one called upon to make such a 
sacrifice. Among the women in the struggle for Rus- 
sian freedom there were many who chose to be fighters 
for justice rather than mothers of the victims of 
tyranny." 



CHAPTER IV 

Catherine now made all her preparations to start 
out as a missionary of revolution among the peasants. 
She invited two comrades to go with her, Masha 
Kalyenkina and Yakov Stephanovitch. 

Stephanovitch was one of the most sincere among 
the young revolutionists. He was a boy of twenty, 
tall and broad, with an open, honest face, and lips so 
thick that he was often called "the White Negro." 
He was very silent. He was the son of an intelligent 
priest, who was an inspector over thirty schools, and 
who had secured positions for many revolutionists as 
teachers. 

Stephanovitch had fitted himself to be a shoemaker 
and cobbler. Masha had gone among the dye- workers 
and painters and learned their trade. Then she taught 
it to Catherine. This was an itinerant trade, and hence 
well suited to revolutionists. 

One bright morning in July, 1874, the three set out 
together from "the commune." Interested eyes 
watched them from every window, as they passed 
down the narrow street. All three were dressed as 
peasants, and carried packs on their backs, containing 
a few coarse garments and the tools of their respective 
trades. They were provided with false passports. 
Catherine's passport described her as forty years of 

41 



42 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

age, though she was only thirty. A skilful arrange- 
ment of her hair beneath a peasant woman's shawl 
gave her the appearance of added years. She wore 
enormous bark shoes, a shirt of thick canvas, a skirt 
of coarse sacking, and a black jacket with a loose red 
belt. She had used acid on her face and hands. 
The two women carried boards for painting and dye- 
ing. The party passed as three cousins from the 
province of Orlov in Great Russia. 

It was a beautiful day. Catherine and her com- 
panions were very happy. Their hearts were over- 
flowing with good will towards all mankind, and in 
their love for the oppressed they found a sort of reli- 
gious joy. 

They made their way to a port on the Dnieper River 
where a boat was about to start for the city of Tcher- 
kass. It was full of laborers and peasants, who were 
talking and eating. The three travelers pulled out 
of their wallets bread, dried fish, and cider, and began 
to eat and drink with the rest. Some of the peasants 
asked them where they came from and whither they 
were bound. They answered, "We come from Orlov, 
and we are looking for work. We have heard that 
in such and such a town there is need of workers in 
our line." 

There was nothing strange in this. Since the eman- 
cipation of the serfs, swarms of destitute peasants who 
had lost their land had been wandering all over Russia 
looking for work. This explanation also made it 
needless for them to try to imitate the peasant speech 
of the province. The dialect of Great Russia was so 
different from that of Little Russia that the peasants 
could not tell whether they were speaking like educated 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 43 

persons or like peasants. Catherine and Masha had 
the soft hands of women who had never done heavy 
manual labor; but when Catherine explained that 
they had been the servants of a wealthy nobleman, it 
was assumed that they had been employed in some 
of the lighter tasks. As for Stephanovitch, his hands 
were already callous with hard work. 

At Tcherkass, as they trudged up the sandy hill 
from the landing, little Masha found herself unequal 
to the weight of her heavy pack. It bowed her down 
more and more. Her friends wanted to relieve her. 
At first she rejected their help with indignation, say- 
ing, *' What sort of a peasant woman am I, if I cannot 
carry a load.^*" At last she had to succumb, and let 
the others divide part of her burden between them. 

Presently they came to a statue of the great Russian 
poet, Shevchenko. They were curious to find out 
how much the peasants knew about this man, who had 
been one of the best friends of their cause. Some had 
never heard of him ; others thought he had been some 
mighty man revered by the nobility. This was all 
they could learn. 

When they reached the heart of the city they felt 
as if everybody were looking at them; but they were 
soon reassured. Nobody took any notice of them. 
They walked till they were tired, then sat down on a 
little rocky eminence, and shared a loaf of bread. 

They passed through the city, to the last row of low 
wooden houses, and out into the open country. On 
one side the vast plains stretched away without end ; 
on the other the forest seemed to frown down upon 
them. Sometimes a coach rattled by, covering them 
with clouds of dust. Sometimes the road was swampy. 



44 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

The two women found it hard work, tramping under 
a heavy pack. After a while they had to sit down to 
rest their aching feet. Stephanovitch was used to 
walking for miles in the mud and dust, and he scorned 
their daintiness. 

"Come, now, you have had enough of sitting!" 
he said, standing in front of them. They were ex- 
hausted ; but they knew they must reach the next 
village before dusk if they were to find shelter in 
any peasant hut. The peasants were suspicious of 
strangers, and would not take in anybody who came 
after dark. They rose and trudged on. 

About six o'clock they arrived at the village of 
Byelozerye. Thoroughly tired, they sat down in a 
cottage porch. Passing peasants asked them where 
they came from and where they were going. They 
answered as before, that they came from the province 
of Orlov, and were looking for work. Soon the district 
clerk appeared, and demanded, with a haughty ges- 
ture, "Have you your passports .^^ " With inward 
misgivings, but with unmoved faces, they pulled their 
false passports out of their blouses. Stephanovitch 
asked where they could get a night's lodging. The 
clerk did not condescend to answer. With the same 
haughty air, he glanced over the passports, and handed 
them back without a word. They folded them up 
reverently — a peasant looks upon a passport as 
something almost sacred — and put them back in 
their breasts. All breathed more freely when the 
functionary had gone. 

They were still at a loss for a lodging. "We must 
go to a tavern," said Stephanovitch. "We shall find 
more people there." But it was the middle of the 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 45 

week, and the inn was almost deserted. Only the 
Jewish host sat behind the counter, and a tall, ragged, 
tipsy peasant was sprawling over a table. He had 
been a soldier in the Crimean War, and his great delight 
was to tell boastful and fantastic stories about it. 

"None of our soldiers could talk with the Turks," 
he began. "But I talked with them as easily as I do 
with you. I would meet a Turk and say to him, 
* Chaldi, Maldi ! ' and he would reply straight to the 
point, 'Maldi, Chaldi', and in this way we would 
keep on through a long conversation." 

At first the travelers were amused, but they soon 
grew tired. They urged the boaster to direct them 
to a lodging, but he stood in the middle of the room 
and kept on declaiming his stories. Finally Stephan- 
ovitch treated him to several glasses of whisky, and 
then he remembered that a friend of his, a widower, 
had a room to let ; but it was at the other end of the 
village. He offered to escort them, but they assured 
him they could find the way. 

Trudging along with their packs, they laughed. 
"Maldi, Chaldi!" said Catherine. "Chaldi, Maldi!" 
answered Stephanovitch. Masha, walking slightly 
bent under her burden, smiled in silence. 

It was a typical little Russian village, a row of small 
white houses, and between every two houses a well. 
After many inquiries they found the place. The wid- 
ower agreed to rent them the house, but he warned 
them that it was too filthy for them to sleep in it that 
night. An old woman, a relative of his, generously 
invited them to spend the night with her, and pre- 
pared some food for them. She gave each a barley 
bun, as big as a man's fist. The remembrance of their 



46 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

flavor fills Catherine with horror to this day. They 
ate some cakes, and then began to nibble at the agon- 
izing slippery buns. They tried hard to swallow 
them, but it seemed a physical impossibility. Then 
they thought of the great men who had sprung from 
the peasantry, and who had been brought up on such 
fare ; and that helped them to get it down. 

During the meal they talked with their hostess, 
and described their hardships while looking for 
work. 

"Well, well, no need to worry," she answered. 
"The girls will come to you to have their kerchiefs 
painted, and their boots, too. You will have plenty 
to do." 

After the ordeal of breakfast, the three travelers 
went to look at their new home. The walls were 
rotten and tottering, the floors broken and carpeted 
with vermin, and on every side there were rat-holes, 
hung with cobwebs. They stood helpless in the midst 
of the dirt. Perhaps they let a momentary thought 
stray to the soft featherbeds and the pots of roses and 
morning glories in the chambers of the homes that 
they had left. Their hostess remarked, in the most 
matter-of-fact way: "You had better get some fresh, 
warm manure from the fields and mix it with lime. 
That makes a good wash for the floor. Then you can 
take some fresh hay and arrange the beds." 

Mixing the lime and manure was considered strictly 
a woman's job, and Stephanovitch could not help. 
Catherine and Masha set to work courageously; but 
the task of kneading lime and steaming manure into 
a paste to varnish a worm-eaten floor was altogether 
new to the two delicately bred ladies. They were 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 47 

overcome with nausea. Stephanovitch smiled, with 
his arms folded behind him. 

"Woman's work!" he sang out heartlessly. 

"Why don't you help.^* It's so hard to talk, you 
know!" answered Catherine mockingly. 

"That's a good one!" retorted Stephanovitch. 
"Why, I should be the laughingstock of the peasants 
and their wives ! " 

Finally it was done. The house was cleaned as far 
as possible, the travelers' packs were lugged across 
from their lodging place, fresh straw was spread, and 
all arrangements were made for the night's rest. But 
there was to be no sleep for Catherine and Masha. 
As soon as they blew out their tallow candles, armies 
of bugs and insects swarmed out of hiding and attacked 
them. It seemed impossible that the house could 
have held so many. Stephanovitch slept as peasants 
can, even under such circumstances ; but the two 
women could not rest for a moment. They kept up 
a constant fight with the invaders. They rolled from 
side to side ; they shifted from their beds to the floor ; 
but the attacking legions followed them, and were 
reinforced by armies of mice. With the break of 
dawn the tormentors retired. The humming and 
buzzing and squeaking died away, and the weary women 
got a few hours' repose. 

Then they started out to ply their trade. Masha 
painted a handkerchief as a sample of what she could 
do, and Catherine polished a boot for the same pur- 
pose. Stephanovitch set up a little shoe shop in one 
part of the house. They gradually attracted cus- 
tomers. They entered into familiar talk with them, 
and inquired into the particulars of their condition. 



48 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OP RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

asking how much land had been given to each peasant, 
etc., etc. 

They found that the emancipation of the serfs had 
made very Httle change in this district, because it 
consisted of crown lands, and there was no private 
land to be had. These peasants had been serfs not of 
the nobles, but of the Czar, and were rather proud of 
the fact. They were no better off for it, however. 
Indeed, they were at a special disadvantage, because 
they had no forests, and so had to buy their fuel. 
Naturally, they stole wood, and were mercilessly 
punished for it. But they never thought of finding 
fault with the Czar; they would rather have found 
fault with Nature's unequal distribution of forests. 
The Czar was the father of all the peasants. If any- 
body was to blame, it was the officials. They had 
ordered the forests to be burned. Surely the Czar 
never knew of that ! 

The "flame-seekers" found no smouldering rebel- 
lion here. But they heard that in the town of Smyela 
there were some energetic young men who were in 
the habit of standing up against the nobles. "There 
are live doings in Smyela," gossip reported. The 
three apostles tightened their red Cossack belts and 
set out for Smyela. 

At Smyela most of the people worked in the sugar 
factories. A Count Babrinski had received a large 
grant of unused land. He sent for thousands of peas- 
ants from the estates in Great Russia, and had them 
plant sugar beets and build refineries, so that he could 
ship the sugar direct from his land to market. The 
town was made up of his two or three thousand la- 
borers. The peasants who had lived there from child- 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 49 

hood, and were now married, occupied several blocks 
of small wooden huts. The unmarried hands, and 
those who came from other districts to work, dug them- 
selves holes in the hillside, where they lived rent 
free. Anyone could scoop himself out a burrow and 
floor it with boards ; and the hills were dotted with 
these burrows, where men, women, and children were 
huddled together, without regard to sex or social rela- 
tionship. Many of the young girls bore illegitimate 
children. They wore their hair in small braids, hoping 
in this way to pass for legitimate wives ; but the mar- 
ried women in the cottages nicknamed them "braiders", 
and looked upon them and their children with scorn. 

The human rabbit warrens on the hill were close 
to the sugar refineries, and the sugar refineries were 
close to the Count's magnificent palace. One glance 
could take in the extremes of poverty and wealth ; 
and the breeze brought the mouldy stench of the hill 
holes, mingled with the fragrance of the Count's 
gardens and kitchen. 

The three wandering idealists found a tiny cabin 
in which an old man lived close by the cottage of his 
married son, and persuaded him to rent it to them. 
He was tall, broad-shouldered, and erect, despite his 
eighty years, with a flowing beard, and a bright, 
energetic face. In his youth he had been shipped 
to Smyela, along with many other young men, to work 
on Count Babrinski's estate. The pioneer labor on 
the land was very hard, and the peasants were flogged 
almost to death. So ruthless was the Count's treat- 
ment that they made up their minds to combine 
against him. The old man recalled, with a flash in 
his eye, how he had led them. But soldiers were sent 



50 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

against them, and they were put down after a few 
volleys of grapeshot and many floggings. He, as the 
leader, had been so beaten that he was confined to his 
bed for weeks. Since then there had been no rebellion. 

This old man had many talks with Catherine and 
her friends, and showed them much kindness, supply- 
ing them with many small conveniences ; but he knew 
that they were poor, and he refused all their invitations 
to dine Vt^ith them. Finally Catherine got around 
the difficulty by inviting him to come over for a talk, 
and then offering him a share of the dinner casually, 
as a sort of secondary phase of the discussion. He 
would wax enthusiastic over the work to be done 
against the oppression of the nobles. 

"We must fight or die," Catherine and her friends 
would say to him. "We must be silent and ready, 
not silent and helpless." 

"Ah, if I wei-e only in my teens again!" he would 
sigh. "But winter lies thick on me, and I am stiff 
and old. We need youth for that." 

They got acquainted with a younger peasant named 
Ivan, and tried to indoctrinate him. 

"What made you leave Orlov.f^" he asked. 

"We could not get any ground to till. When we 
were freed from serfdom, we were freed from the land, 
too — that is, we were free to leave." 

"Well, that's nothing new," said Ivan. "We have 
had the same trouble right here. Why, there isn't 
even any pasture land for the cows, or any plots for 
gardens. We have to buy everything we need; and 
we have to pay for it, too." 

Under serfdom, the peasants had been able to supply 
most of their wants from the soil. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 51 

"The time has come now when we must all work," 
went on Ivan. "From the tiniest tot to the oldest 
man — men, women, and children ; we all have our 
price : the men at forty kopeks a day, the women at 
twenty-five, and the kiddies at ten." 

But when Catherine tried to show him that they 
must join hands against the government, he answered : 

"It can't be. The Czar knows nothing of all these 
things that his ofiicials and subordinates do. They 
are all rascals, and they keep it from him, for fear of 
being punished if he knew. Why, do you think the 
Czar is a fool ? Do you think he does not know that 
without land the peasant cannot live?" 

Catherine insisted that the Czar was no better 
than the nobles, and that he was in league with them. 

Ivan answered : " How can it pay the Czar to be on 
the side of the nobles when they are only a handful 
and the peasants are millions? Besides, who pays 
all the taxes? Who serves in the army? Who feeds 
the nation? The peasant, and only the peasant." 

"What you say is very true," answered Catherine, 
"but for all that, the Czar is the peasants' enemy. 
Who is the Czar? He himself is a nobleman. He 
feasts and drinks with the nobles about him. They 
are his friends and advisers. What he says, they do, 
and what they want, he says." 

But Ivan persisted : " The Czar is good to his 
peasants. They are his children. Everything that 
is bad comes from the barons and the lords." 

To the Russian peasants, the Czar was a deity. 
It was easier for them to believe the most fantastic 
fables than to give up their faith in the " good Little 
Father." They were firmly convinced that the book 



52 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION ' 

of laws issued by the Czar when serfdom was abol- 
ished had been intercepted by some conscienceless 
officials, who had torn out of it several pages full of 
blessings for the peasants, and had interpolated a 
long list of oppressive laws that the Czar never meant 
or knew anything about. Their hope was that some 
day some peasant might discover the original pages in 
his haystack or pigpen. 

But Catherine persisted : 

"You say the Czar is the peasants' friend. Well, 
how about the army? To whom does that belong? 
Is it not the Czar's?" 

"It is." 

"And who commands the army and tells it what 
to do? Is not that the Czar's business?" 

"It is." 

" Then why do the soldiers flog and shoot you ? Why 
do they murder you and your children in cold blood 
when you organize clubs ? Because it is the Czar who 
tells them to do it. They take orders only from him." 

Ivan wrinkled his forehead. He murmured : 
"Really, it is strange. I can't say. Maybe false 
reports are circulated about us, and reach the Czar's 
ear. You know how deceitful those officials are. 
They pour poison into his ear. God bless him, what 
can he do? He doesn't know." 

After a good deal of talk, Ivan became convinced 
that they would have to fight, and fight hard, to set 
things right. 

"Are there others who have such ideas?" asked 
Catherine. 

"Well, yes," he replied guardedly. "How have you 
found it in other places?" 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 53 

**0h, there are many everywhere who understand 
the truth, and they are ready to organize and join 
in the movement against the oppressors. The Czar 
is seated on the peak, far too high for you to reach 
him. But the mountain rests on your shoulders : 
and if you walk away, the whole burden will fall, 
and the peak, which was formerly high above your 
head, will lie in the mud beneath your feet." 

Ivan wrinkled his brows again. He was thinking. 

After repeated conversations with the revolutionists, 
he said : "Well, we will talk it over. If there is to be 
an uprising, we must all stand together. The separate 
groups all over the country must unite. You seem to 
travel everywhere. Talk it over with the people in 
many other villages. Perhaps they will help us." 

"Why, do you suppose that I am the only one.''" 
said Catherine. "Hundreds and hundreds of men 
and women all over Russia at this moment are talk- 
ing to the peasants as I talk to you. The wrongs that 
we children of the soil have to suffer are too great. 
We are broken and ruined under them. And why 
must we endure them.? Many are going about say- 
ing these things. They are even distributing books 
and pamphlets about our sorrows. Just see, I have 
such a booklet here." 

She pulled out from her blouse "Moses and his Four 
Brothers", a pamphlet that the revolutionists used to 
distribute in the villages. It was a story containing 
a concise exposition of the principles of freedom, and 
a criticism of the Russian autocracy, sugar-coated 
over with romance. She began to read this aloud to 
Ivan and his wife. Both were deeply impressed. Ivan 
exclaimed with enthusiasm : 



/ 
54 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

"Those are golden words! They speak what we 
feel." 

"That is not enough," said Catherine. "One feels 
much, and one says much. But] does one always 
do enough .f^ You must make me acquainted with 
others." 

"Yes, you are right. There are friends and neigh- 
bors with whom you ought to talk. They too feel a 
great deal. I will bring you and them together," 
And he added, excitedly, "You will bring along 
the original pages that were torn out of the book of 
laws?" 

It was agreed that the first meeting of the factory 
hands should be held in Ivan's house. Meanwhile 
Catherine tried to get in touch with some peasants 
less gentle and phlegmatic than he. She heard of 
two brothers in the sugar refinery who were noted for 
their pugnacity and grit. They had been leaders in 
all the struggles for better pay. She went to the house 
of one of them. It was evening, but he had not yet 
come home. She found his wife in great fear and 
anxiety because of the disappearance of their hog. 
She knew what her husband would do to her if the 
animal was lost through her lack of watchfulness. 
Catherine tried to comfort her. Bursting into tears, 
the poor woman seized her hand and covered it with 
kisses. It was an unheard-of thing for one peasant 
woman to kiss the hand of another, and Catherine 
was greatly taken aback. She was afraid the woman 
had penetrated her disguise. But the unusual act 
was only due to gratitude for the unaccustomed sym- 
pathy. The wife's terror did not give Catherine 
a very favorable idea of the husband; nevertheless. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 55 

she wished to await his return, but the wife urged her 
to go, not wanting her to witness a painful scene. 

The next day Catherine saw the man, and talked 
to him about the many wrongs of the factory workers. 
"It is strange," she said, "that when your wages are 
cut down a few kopeks a day you make a terrible out- 
cry and fight desperately against it ; but when the 
nobles take away your land and all your rights, you 
are as meek as cattle." 

"What can we do ?" he asked. "If the crowd holds 
back and only one man steps forward, what do you 
expect him to accomplish? The crowd disowns him 
and the oppressors give him a flogging and send him 
to Siberia." 

The same idea had been expressed to Catherine 
again and again. She tried the brother, but found no 
encouragement. He was immensely proud of the 
factory, although he lived as miserably as the rest of 
its two thousand hands. "Where will you find such 
another factory.?" he boasted. "Where is there one 
that employs so many workers, and turns out so much 
sugar.?" 

At last the Sunday appointed for the meeting came. 
About forty peasants filed slowly into Ivan's house. 
They sat on chairs, tables, window sills, and bedsteads. 

Ivan began: "My brothers, the 'original papers' 
are among us. The good and noble writings which 
the lawless nobles and officials tore out of the statutes 
are now here, and are going to be read to us." 

There was dead silence. The peasants were alV 
ears. Catherine was almost as breathless as they. 
Her heart throbbed with joy over the fulfilment of her 
long cherished hope. For the first time, she was to 



56 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

address a gathering of peasants in a peasant's home 
• — not students, not educated men and women, but 
the children of the soil, the crude, rough foundations 
of the Russian nation. She said to them : 

"I have no miraculous papers, stolen from law 
books ; but I have other valuable papers, which, 
although not written by the Czar, are nevertheless 
full of sympathy and interest for the peasants. These 
works are by very good people — indeed, by the best 
people in Russia. They are all written about you — 
about the wrongs you have suffered in silence and 
resignation, about the outrages committed upon you, 
and about your rights as human beings." 

"But who will read these things to us?" asked the 
peasants. None of them could read. 

*'0h, she — * Auntie,'" answered Ivan. 

"What! Can she read?" 

"Read! Why, she reads very well," exclaimed 
Ivan. 

She began to read. There was a complete hush. 
The peasants drank in every word; the motion of 
their mouths imitated every syllable uttered by the 
reader. She read in a clear, strong, pleasant voice, 
and with beaming eyes. The peasants were fasci- 
nated and almost hypnotized. At the close, many 
shouted : 

"God! What noble words!" "What golden 
words!" "What truth!" 

Catherine's face shone. This was one of the supreme 
moments of her life. 

"Well," she said, "what is to come of it? We 
must do something. We cannot remain indifferent 
to this horrid injustice all around us." 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 57 

At these words the audience awakened from their 
trance. An elderly peasant answered : 

"You are right. Your words are golden words. 
But how can we organize for a revolt? If we alone 
were to take arms against the power of the govern- 
ment, we should be flogged, ruined. The soldiers 
would be sent against us, and that would be the end 
of it. But if many other villages joined us, then 
perhaps — " 

"And I think," another peasant interrupted, "that 
we had better wait till the Czar learns about our 
miserable condition, and the atrocities committed by 
the nobles. Then he will avenge us." 

Catherine told him that he was utterly mistaken; 
that the Czar was no better than the nobles, perhaps 
even worse ; and that to look to the Czar for help was 
like seeking salvation at the hands of the devil. Up- 
roar followed; not another intelligible word was 
spoken. The peasants were completely confounded. 
To hear the Czar and the devil named in one breath 
was too much for them. Catherine withdrew from 
the meeting, excited and a little disturbed. 

The facts leaked out and reached the authorities. 
Stephanovitch was warned that he must vanish. He 
did so. A young man brought the same warning to 
Catherine and Masha, with a sum of money. He 
urged them to start at once for Tcherkass, where 
Stephanovitch would rejoin them. Then he too 
disappeared. The two women told the peasants that 
they had had an offer of work in another district, 
and must leave at once. Every one was sorry to have 
them go. Even their aged host's daughter-in-law, a 
shrew that scolded and cursed continually, shed tears 



58 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

at their departure. The old man himself was deeply 
moved. He said to Catherine : 

"I lived happily with my wife for many years, but 
that which I have felt toward you I have felt toward 
no other woman. You are one in a thousand. May 
God help you in all that you undertake ! " 



CHAPTER V 

Masha returned to Kiev. Catherine stayed for a 
time in Tcherkass. As she wandered about the town, 
looking for new recruits, she came one day upon a 
group of working people seated on a stone wall near 
the river, where they were employed about the landing. 
Several women were cooking the midday meal in a 
large pot mounted on three bricks. This was a com- 
munal group, that worked and ate together. If any 
member was ill, his part of the food was sent home to 
him. Communal clubs of this kind had their origin 
in the most ancient customs and traditions of Russia. 
Cooperative colonies and other community under- 
takings existed and flourished in large numbers through- 
out the country. The revolutionists took a great 
interest in them. They believed that if the workers 
could act in concert to provide for their material wants, 
they could learn to fight in concert to secure a free 
government. 

Catherine was pleased to come upon this example 
of folk brotherhood. She greeted the laborers, and 
they responded cordially. Handing her a spoon, 
they urged her to sit down and share their meal. 

"Where do you come from.f^" they asked. 

"FromOrlov. I am waiting for my nephew. When 
he arrives, we shall go together to look for work." 

59 



60 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

"What is doing in your neighborhood?" they said. 

"What should there be doing ? There is no land for 
the peasants." 

"Ah!" they exclaimed in chorus, "the old story — 
no land." 

Catherine turned the conversation to a village that 
was much talked about at the time, where the peasants, 
driven desperate by the oppression of the nobles, had 
appointed delegates to go and complain to the Czar. 

"Ah, delegates!" exclaimed one of the workers, 
with a gesture of despair. "What good does it do to 
send delegates ? They were thrown into jail, and are 
rotting there to this day." 

"But what do you think of the Czar's not even 
allowing his children, the peasants, to come to him 
with their complaints .^^ " said Catherine. 

"The Czar is not to blame," was the prompt reply. 
"You think he knows that we come to him, and so 
arrests us. But the nobles and the officials do not even 
let us get near him." 

"What a fine Czar," said Catherine, "not to know 
when his peasants want to see him, or not to be able 
to let them come to him ! There are millions and mil- 
lions of peasants, and only a handful of nobles, yet he 
never sees the peasants, and he always sees the nobles. 
Do you call that justice? Be honest with yourselves 
— is that fair ? " 

A confusion of voices arose. The younger laborers 
sided with Catherine, but the older ones all defended 
the Czar. 

"Who freed us from serfdom?" said one old man. 
"Was it not the Czar? Have you so soon forgotten 
a noble deed of bounty?" 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 61 

Catherine had many talks with laborers and peas- 
ants in Tcherkass. She had given away all her litera- 
ture, but she soon learned to speak to them so that 
their hearts were like wax in her hands. She was as 
good a listener as she was a talker. Her love and sym- 
pathy made each of them feel as if he were opening his 
heart to a mother. They told her all their troubles. 
When it was time to go, they could hardly tear them- 
selves away. They would go to the door, hesitate, 
and turn back to ask about something they had for- 
gotten ; walk lingeringly to the door again, go out, 
and then send somebody back to ask just one more 
question of the strange, wonderful peasant woman. 

When Stephanovitch arrived, Catherine and he took 
boat down the Dnieper River to the district of Yelizavet- 
grad, in the province of Kherson. Here there were 
many Dissenters, known as Evangelists. They had 
undergone much persecution from the government, 
but had resisted so stoutly that now they were tacitly 
permitted to pray as they pleased. Not knowing where 
their head center was, the two revolutionists said to 
some of the passengers on the boat : 

"People talk of a new sort of religion in these parts. 
Do you know what it is all about .f*" 

Some of the peasants looked shocked, others shrugged 
and smiled. Some were too frightened to take any 
notice of the question. One answered, laughing : 

"Why, do you want to join this new faith?" 

They discussed the Dissenters with everybody who 
was willing to talk about them, in order to find out how 
they were generally regarded. 

One peasant said: "These Evangelists are certainly 
in league with the devil and his imps; for if you put 



62 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

a three-ruble piece on the doorsill of an Evangelist's 
cottage, the next day you will find a hundred-ruble 
piece in place of it." 

These stories grew out of the fact that no Evangelist 
touched liquor, or squandered his earnings; and no 
stranger was ever turned away from the door. The 
priests of the Orthodox Greek Church denounced 
these heretics, and warned the people to have nothing 
to do with them ; but the peasants found them humble, 
courteous, hospitable, and helpful, always doing good. 
They could not reconcile what they heard in church 
with what they saw in daily life. 

The two "flame-seekers" stopped at the village of 
Lyubomirka. Here the opponents of the State Church 
had gained a large following, because they had an able 
local leader, Ivan Ryobashapka. He was not only a 
man of strong character, but a diplomatist. He was 
a carpenter, and he had presented the chief of police 
with a handsomely-carved bureau and the police in- 
spector with a beautiful cabinet. In Lyubomirka 
the Evangelists were looked upon leniently by the 
police, while everywhere else they were flogged. When 
the two revolutionists arrived, Ryobashapka was 
away, but was expected back in a few days. 

To disarm suspicion, they took up their quarters 
with a very orthodox peasant. They rented the cabin 
adjoining his cottage, and there Stephanovitch set 
out his shoemaker's tools and Catherine her dyestuffs 
and paintbrushes. They questioned their host and 
his wife about the Evangelists, and were told that 
they had a terrible reputation, which it was hard even 
for such children of the devil to live up to ; in fact, 
their outward behavior was fairly good, but of course 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 63 

that did not matter, since the village priest declared 
that their religion was horrible. 

"Do any of these dreadful people live near here?" 
asked Catherine. 

"Why, there is one of them only next door; and 
what an Evangelist he is ! His eyes sparkle and burn. 
You cannot look in his eyes without feeling that the 
devil is there. He is one of the leaders, too . He 
can talk about his religion for hours. He likes it 
better than food or work. But what sort of religion 
can they have, without a church, and without the 
sanction of the Czar.? Imagine people sitting and 
singing and praying within bare walls, and with no 
sacred candles !" 

Not wishing to be seen going along the road to visit 
Stephan, the Evangelist, Catherine climbed over the 
fence into his ground. He stopped work, and leaned 
on his hoe, looking at her with his brilliant eyes. 

"Good day, brother," she said. 

"Good day, sister," he replied. 

Catherine sat down on a pile of hay, and began to 
sew on a shirt that she had brought with her. 

"I do not want to disturb you," she said. "Finish 
your work, and then we will talk." 

He dropped his hoe, saying, "It is easy enough to 
let this work wait, but we should never let the word 
of God wait a moment." 

Leading her into the house, he proceeded to expound 
the doctrines of the reformed religion with fervor. 
How could she endure the absurdities of the Greek 
Church, the false pomps and ceremonies of the blinded 
image- worshippers ? Why not embrace the pure, 
the noble, the only true faith .^^ His face shone with 



64 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

earnestness. A strange feeling stole over Catherine. 
Two apostles of two different movements were stand- 
ing face to face, each bent upon converting the other. 

"How do you know that I have not already embraced 
the doctrines of Evangelism?" she said. 

"Of course, I do not know," he answered, "but 
something seems to tell me you are not yet a complete 
Evangelist." 

"I realize fully," said Catherine, "that the faith 
of the Orthodox Greek Church is false in many respects, 
and that it needs to be rooted out of the country. 
But that is not the only evil in Russia that needs to 
be rooted out. The government that fosters the 
Greek Church is depraved, too. The writings of the 
holy fathers, which declare the country's ruler to be 
the anointed of God, ought to be destroyed as imbecile. 
We go a step further than you Evangelists. We 
oppose not merely the false doctrines in the State 
Church, but falsehood and evil wherever and when- 
ever it shows itself. We oppose it in the laws that 
men make for their brothers ; we oppose it in the daily 
life of every man, woman, and child. Do you believe 
that it is wrong to worship the image of God, but right 
to worship the image of the Czar ? " 

"What are you saying, sister.'*" asked the Evange- 
list, in surprise. "Does not the gospel say expressly 
that we should render unto Csesar the things that 
are Csesar's and unto God the things that are God's ? " 

In reply, Catherine quoted several other texts which 
entirely demolished the interpretation that the Evange- 
list had put upon that one. Having been brought 
up on the Bible, she was fortified with a great array 
of revolutionary passages of Scripture. To every 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 65 

evil which could be traced to the Czar, she applied a 
quotation from Holy Writ. "How can God have 
anointed a ruler who does everything that God con- 
demns? Does God encourage misery and poverty 
among his children on earth? Does He encourage 
oppression and murder? Well, but that is just what 
the Czar does encourage!" 

Whenever Catherine waxed eloquent, the Evangelist 
would meditate for a while, and then say dreamily : 
"Who knows? Perhaps, if one of us Evangelists 
could come into the Czar's presence, he would tell the 
Czar everything, and then everything would change 
for the better. The trouble is that he is always sur- 
rounded by unscrupulous nobles and officials. Ah, if 
one of our members could only approach him ! " 

Catherine told the Evangelist that her nephew was 
deeply interested in these subjects, and she would 
bring him over to have a talk about them if Stephan 
would arrange to have some other Evangelists present. 
To this he gladly agreed. 

Catherine introduced Stephanovitch to Stephan, 
and they argued for hours, Stephanovitch bringing 
forward many texts to prove the need of a revolution. 
Then Catherine began to chat with the Evangelist 
about his family. He told her he had been married 
twice, and had two children by his first wife. 

"That is the source of all my troubles," he said. 
"There is continual quarreling between the stepmother 
and her stepchildren." 

"What do you do about it?" 

"Well, what would you expect? The world has 
found a cure for such cases, hasn't it?" He smiled 
— not a pleasant smile. "Sometimes I have to give 



66 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

the children a thrashing to keep them within bounds, 
and sometimes my wife gets it. Then things quiet 
down, all right." 

Catherine knew that most peasants beat their wives, 
but in the case of a deeply religious Evangelist she 
had hoped to find a higher type of family life. 

"What!" she exclaimed. "A man of your intelli- 
gence do such an unmanly thing .f^ Would it not be 
much better to quiet your wife and children by talk- 
ing to them.f^" 

Just then a slender young peasant woman came in, 
with a child in her arms, and an older boy and girl 
hanging to her dress. There was a weary, melancholy 
look in her deep sunken eyes. Catherine had a talk 
with her, while Stephanovitch engaged the husband 
in another discussion. 

"Sister, my heart is full to bursting," said the frail 
little woman. "When we come together to pray, 
they all bow their heads and murmur their thoughts 
and wishes to God, but my heart is heavy and I am 
dumb. I cannot pray, for my conscience is not clear, 
and I feel dreadful misgivings. In the Holy Book 
it says that we should all love one another ; but what 
kind of love have we here.^^ The children vex and 
torment me, my husband beats me, and I am ignored 
and trampled upon. Nobody ever pays the slightest 
heed to my wishes. I sometimes feel that I have no 
place here; and so I cannot honestly pray to thank 
God." 

The poor woman wept bitterly, stifling her sobs for 
fear they might reach her husband's ear. Catherine 
could hardly keep back her own tears. 

The meeting at the Evangelist's house was held the 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 67 

next night. The room was packed. There were 
many men, and some women and children. None of 
the men were young. Some had interesting faces; 
there was something there beside the careworn wrinkles 
of the peasant; there was a faint glow of enthusiasm 
in their eyes. All wore their holiday garments of white 
linen freshly washed and pressed, with green belts ; 
and the women had on brilliantly dyed shawls. A 
kerosene lamp hung from the ceiling. They sang 
psalms and hymns with a German rhythm. The 
harmony was poor, for the Russian peasants were still 
unaccustomed to the musical genius of the German 
Protestants whose religion they had adopted ; but 
they struggled through the lines heroically, making 
up in enthusiasm what they lacked in skill. 

Then a peasant rose and prayed, his eyes fixed upon 
the wall in the left-hand corner of the room, where 
the sacred images and pictures are found in the houses 
of peasants belonging to the Greek Church. Here 
they had been replaced by a strip of bright-colored wall 
paper and several flower vases. He called upon God, 
asking the cause of man's debasement, and how this 
sinful creature could ascend into the light of heaven. 
Meanwhile the other peasants shook their heads with 
rhythmic piety, their lips faintly murmuring tender 
supplications, their eyes all fixed upon the many-colored 
wall paper in the left corner. Then a woman arose. 
She prayed that sin might be swept from the earth, 
and that Evangelism might come into its own in every 
part of the land. She mourned over the frailty of 
mankind, with her eyes fixed on the spot where the 
picture of the Madonna used to hang; and the eyes 
of the whole assembly gazed in the same direction. 



68 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

Then Stephan said: "Brothers and sisters, we have 
here two guests who wish to become familiar with our 
creed and our manner of praying. They are inchned 
towards the EvangeHstic faith, but they are still un- 
certain upon several points, and they want to inform 
themselves by asking us some questions." 

Catherine then took the floor. She said: "It is 
written in the Holy Book that faith without works 
is dead. Where there is true religion, there must be 
action. If so, then, when the Holy Scriptures tell us 
to help the downtrodden and oppressed, we must do 
more than merely repeat the words after them. We 
must practice what we preach. We 'must really help 
those who are suffering." 

"Well, well, that is certain," assented several peas- 
ants. 

"But I know of many villages where the peasants 
are on the verge of absolute starvation — where the 
old people never eat bread and the babies never get 
milk. They need not only religion, but food. They 
are so hungry that they cannot even think about 
religion." 

She went on to describe the dire poverty she had 
seen in other districts she had visited — places where 
peasants ate the bran that here was thrown to the 
cattle; places where women and children were merci- 
lessly flogged for the slightest neglect of their work. 
Her pictures were so vivid and gripping that the women 
melted into tears, and the men bowed their heads in 
sorrow. One short peasant with fiery red hair broke 
into shouts ; he wanted to go out at once to feed the 
starving people from the bursting granaries of the 
wealthy nobles. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 69 

"And why have we all this suffering around us?" 
continued Catherine. "Because the peasants, since 
their emancipation from serfdom, have been given 
no land ; because they have been ruthlessly robbed of 
all their possessions and of all their rights, not only in 
regard to religion, but in all social, political, and eco- 
nomic matters." 

The Evangelists were wholly under the spell of Cath- 
erine's magnetic personality. They shouted approval, 
and declared they would avenge the wrongs of their 
brethren. There was enthusiastic confusion. 

Suddenly the door opened. On the threshold stood 
a remarkably handsome man. His face was domineer- 
ing, his bearing martial, his dress almost splendid. 
He held a Bible in his hand. 

"Ah! Here is Brother Peter!" cried the peasants. 

Peter was the right-hand man of the absent 
Ryobashapka. He had received a hint that it would 
be well for him to attend the meeting, as the Evange- 
lists would need a man who could hold his own in argu- 
ment. 

He marched with a self-confident air to the middle 
of the room, took a good look at the two strangers, 
and sat down to listen. Stephanovitch began an 
address, quoting from the Scriptures, but was inter- 
rupted by Peter with the text, "Render unto Csesar 
the things that are Csesar's." Stephanovitch re- 
sponded with such a shower of revolutionary texts 
that Peter was soon confounded and put to silence. 
Then Catherine again described the miserable condi- 
tion of the peasants in different parts of Russia. She 
told of peasants who never baked, and sometimes were 
driven to eat grass; of whole villages suffering from a 



70 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

contagious eye-trouble, because the people lived in 
burrows; of peasants who spent the whole summer 
picking crumbs and other bits of food out of the barrels, 
and lived during the winter on what they had been 
able to save of the food thus collected. They were as 
gaunt as skeletons, yet they were exploited, and taxed, 
and forced to serve in the army. She told of the thou- 
sands and thousands who wandered from place to place 
in search of work, destitute and starving, till they 
found their last bed in a ditch, and no one knew when 
or where they died ; and all because the peasants had 
been deprived of the land that was rightfully their own. 

The listeners wept and groaned in heartfelt sym- 
pathy. 

"Well," said Catherine, "can you know of all this 
that is going on around you, and not care ? " 

"No, no ! Never !" cried the little peasant with the 
red hair. 

"We must do something," exclaimed others. 

Then Catherine and Stephanovitch explained that 
there was a great revolutionary organization, with 
branches all over Russia, which was planning to win 
justice for the wronged and bleeding children of the 
soil. The revolutionists, they said, were also preachers 
of a religion, and one of its maxims was, "No stone 
shall be left unturned until life in this world is started 
on an honest basis." "Brothers and sisters," said 
Catherine, "will you join us in this movement for jus- 
tice and equality ? " 

The peasants hesitated. Then they answered, "We 
are all in full sympathy with you, but we cannot de- 
cide upon anything till our eldest brother, Ryoba- 
shapka, is here to advise us." 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 71 

"And have you no wills of your own — no minds 
of your own ? " said Catherine. 

"It is wiser to wait for him," they insisted. "He 
attends to all our affairs, and he once traveled all the 
way to St. Petersburg in our cause." 

The peasants parted with the revolutionists in a 
very friendly spirit. Peter tried to slip away un- 
noticed, but Catherine insisted upon shaking hands 
with him. The audience left one by one, so as not 
to attract attention. Then Stephan took Catherine 
and her nephew into his back yard, silenced his 
dog with a kick, and helped them over the fence, so 
that no one might know they had been visiting the 
heretics. 

The next morning their host asked them if they had 
yet met his neighbor Stephan. Catherine said that 
they had, and that he seemed to be a fairly good sort 
of peasant, only that his religion was not quite what 
it ought to be. She and Stephanovitch spent the day 
studying the Scriptures, in preparation for the evejiing 
meeting. They drew their ammunition especially from 
the Epistles. 

In the evening a still larger gathering of Evangelists 
met in Stephan's house. Peter was there, Bible in 
hand, ready to renew the fight. He held out somewhat 
longer than before, but he was finally discomfited, 
and took shelter behind the little red-headed man, 
who was absorbed in admiration of Catherine. 

Stephanovitch spoke about the early trials of the 
Apostles, telling how they had opposed autocratic 
rulers, and had refused to recognize the divine right 
of kings, or the sacredness of their laws and edicts. 
The peasants waxed still more enthusiastic, and were 



72 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION . 

all ready to join the revolutionary movement, if only 
Ryobashapka approved. Catherine had misgivings 
about their blind trust in this "elder brother." She 
feared also that Ryobashapka would be influenced 
against her and Stephanovitch in advance, by Brother 
Peter, whose pride had been wounded by his defeat 
in argument. 

The next evening they found the peasants restless 
and full of expectation. "To-day we shall come to a 
decision," said Stephan. "Our oldest and wisest 
brother has just got back. He will soon be here." 
The peasants kept stealing glances at the door. At 
last it opened, to admit a powerful, broad-shouldered 
giant, ruddy and well fed, with a high forehead and 
piercing eyes. He gazed at the two visitors in silence 
for a few moments, then marched through the crowd 
straight up to them, and thundered, "Where do you 
come from ? " 
"From Orlov." 

"Why are you wandering about? Why don't you 
settle down somewhere ,f* " 

"We have no land. We are looking for work." 
"Where are your passports ? Have you passports ? " 
Catherine and Stephanovitch rose, and began slowly 
to pull out their passports, but the look of mingled 
scorn and pity that Catherine cast upon the arrogant 
carpenter made him blush to his ears. It was the 
business of the government alone to demand passports ; 
and it did not become an Evangelist to help the perse- 
cuting government in making its inquisitions. But 
Ryobashapka represented that he only wanted to make 
sure they were not tramps. God knew who might be 
prowling about among respectable people ! 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 73 

"Well, now, why do you come to us?" he asked, 
after looking at the passports. 

"We are truth-seekers," they answered, "and we 
heard that you people here have discovered and up- 
hold the true faith." 

"Well, that wouldn't be so bad; but I understand 
that you are agitating for a rebellion against the Czar." 

"We simply believe that the oppressed should defend 
themselves against their oppressors." 

Ryobashapka defended obedience to the Czar from 
the gospels. His arguments were soon demolished, 
but this only made him more bitter. "If I did not 
understand the teachings of my religion and practice 
them," he said, "I should turn you over to the police 
this minute." 

"There would be nothing new in that," answered 
Catherine, with a shade of mockery in her tone. "The 
Czar has plenty of spies and informers," 

Confusion followed. Many of the Evangelists were 
displeased with Ryobashapka's roughness. 

"Why bully them so?" they said. "They mean 
well. They are seekers after the truth." 

"They have the people's welfare at heart," said the 
little man with the red head. 

"What is all this excitement about?" asked the car- 
penter, frowning. "I said I had a right to turn them 
over to the police, but that, being an honest Evangelist, 
I shall not avail myself of the right. There is nothing 
harsh about that." 

This calmed the disturbance. The two revolution- 
ists then reminded the peasants that the government 
did not permit a true interpretation of the Bible, and 
that the people suffered severely in consequence. 



'5'4 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

"Here you are," they said, "trying to live according 
to your own convictions, and you are continually 
molested and persecuted." Catherine described the 
sufferings of others who tried to live according to their 
ideals, and how they were all arrested, or flogged, or 
sent to Siberia. "Do you think a Czar who permits 
such things is pleasing to God?" she said. 

"What are you driving at?" cried Ryobashapka. 
"Do you mean to tell me that if the officials will not 
permit an honest interpretation of the Bible, they will 
permit rebellion and an honest form of government ? 
Perhaps, if you went to prison for a year or two, as 
I have done, you would learn a thing or two. I know 
what I have gone through to get our right of free wor- 
ship for this congregation, and I don't fancy the idea 
of going through it again. We have been flogged and 
persecuted, we have been thrown into prison and had 
our property confiscated and our rights taken away, 
over and over again ; and now, when our burden has 
grown somewhat lighter, and we are about to be able 
to enjoy our newly won liberties in peace, I certainly 
don't see why we should join in a most desperate under- 
taking, which will ruin everything for us. We have 
had enough of persecution. We have no particular 
fancy for Siberia, or the fortress of St. Peter and St. 
Paul." 

He made a long and telling speech, and carried all 
the peasants with him. The two revolutionists re- 
tired, completely routed. 

They would not leave town at once, for that would 
have seemed like flight. They stayed long enough 
to allay suspicion. When Catherine went to bid Ste- 
phan good-by, he said, in a voice of deep emotion : 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 75 

*'I cannot express what I feel, but I know that the 
first time I set eyes upon you, when you came over the 
fence into my yard, something was lighted up in my 
heart. When I heard you attack the Czar and his 
degenerate court, I wondered, thinking, 'Perhaps this 
woman is the Czar's own daughter, for is it not written 
somewhere that *'the doom of the house of kings shall 
be sounded by one of their own household" ?' " 

Stephan invited her to come to his house that night 
with her "nephew." He treated them with every 
mark of consideration, and when they started to leave 
the town, he sent his little daughter to show them the 
way, so that they might not have to inquire of strangers. 
The barefooted child ran ahead of them through the 
darkness^ leading them through winding paths to a 
hill on the outskirts of the town. There she pointed 
out the road, made them a pretty curtsy, and vanished 
like a little fairy of the night. 



CHAPTER VI 

The two "flame-seekers" next went to Zlatopol. 
They found in the market place many Roumanian 
women, with heads so wrapped up that only their 
eyes could be seen. Just as they arrived, a policeman 
snatched a paper ruble from one woman's hand, and 
made off with it. The woman screamed, and Stephano- 
vitch, who always fired up at the sight of injustice, 
started after the policeman. Catherine hung on to 
his coat with all her might. 

"You child!" she said. "Do you want to ruin 
everything by starting a riot here?" 

In Zlatopol she had a large supply of revolu- 
tionary literature printed, and spent some time dis- 
tributing her pamphlets and holding meetings among 
the peasants. Then she traveled on, going from 
village to village. 

"I did my organizing by night," she said, in telling 
of her experiences. "You desire a picture.'^ A low 
room with mud floor and walls. Rafters just over 
your head, and still higher, thatch. The room was 
packed with men, women, and children. Two big 
fellows sat up on the high brick stove, with their 
dangling feet knocking occasional applause. These 
people had been gathered by my host, a brave peasant 
whom I had picked out, and he in turn had chosen 

76 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSL\N REVOLUTION 77 

only those whom Siberia could not terrify. I reminded 
them of their floggings ; I pointed to those who were 
crippled for life; to women whose husbands had died 
under the lash; and when I asked if men were to be 
forever flogged, they would cry out so fiercely that 
the three or four cattle in the next room would bellow 
and have to be quieted. Again I would ask what 
chance their babies had of living, and in reply some 
peasant woman would tell how her baby had died 
the winter before. Why.^* I asked. Because they 
had only the most wretched bits of land. To be free 
and live, the people must own the land ! From my 
cloak I would bring a book of fables written to teach 
our principles and stir the love of freedom. And then, 
far into the night, the firelight showed a circle of great, 
broad faces and dilated eyes, staring with all the 
reverence every peasant has for that mysterious thing 
— a book. 

"These books, twice as effective as oral work, were 
printed in secrecy at heavy expense. But many 
of us had libraries, jewels, costly gowns and furs to 
sell; and new recruits kept adding to our fund. We 
had no personal expenses. 

"Often, betrayed by some spy, I left a village 
quickly, before completing my work. Then the hut 
group was left to meet under a peasant who could 
read aloud those wonderful fables. So they dreamed, 
until a few weeks later another leader in disguise came 
to them. 

"In that year of 1874, over two thousand educated 
men and women traveled among the peasants. Weary 
work, you say. Yes, when the peasants were slow 
and dull, and the spirit of freedom seemed an illusion. 



78 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

But when that spirit grew real, one felt far from weary. 
Then, too, we had occasional grippings of hands with 
comrades. We could always encourage each other, 
for all had found the peasants receptive to our doc- 
trine. To own the land had been the dream of their 
fathers. Their eagerness rose; and stout words of 
cheer were sent from one group to another. An under- 
ground system was started, a correspondence cipher 
was invented, the movement spread through thirty- 
six great provinces of Russia and became steadily 
better organized. So the People's Party was es- 
tablished." 

In September, Catherine and Stephanovitch were 
working near Tulchin, in Podolia. They had chosen 
this region because here the peasants had often banded 
themselves together against the Polish nobility. 

In Tulchin they saw an old deserted palace in a 
great park. In the heart of the town they noticed a 
strange, gloomy building, surrounded by a high stone 
wall. Catherine wondered what it was. She was 
soon to learn. 

They took up their quarters, as usual, with a peasant. 
He inspected their passports, and stowed them for 
safety in his great wooden chest. Beside it stood 
their packs. These were full of revolutionary litera- 
ture, but they had no fear that any one would pry 
into them. It was an unwritten law that no peasant 
should ever meddle with another peasant's pack. 
Unfortunately, just the opposite rule prevailed as to 
letters. The arrival of a letter in a little town was a 
rare event, exciting general interest and awe. If one 
peasant received any mail, the other peasants expected 
to know all about it, as a matter of course. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 79 

Their host had taken the two travelers into his own 
hut until the little cabin beside it, which was partly 
filled with grain, could be cleared out and made ready 
for them. As his wife was ill, he had a servant girl. 
After a time Stephanovitch went to Kiev on business, 
leaving his pack in Catherine's care. She used to go 
every morning to the market to buy food. Coming 
home one day, with her modest purchase of two apples 
and a bit of pork, she passed the dilapidated palace, 
and was just thinking that some day the lofty throne 
of Russia might in like manner be given over to the 
worms, when she heard the rattling of a carriage 
coming rapidly along the road behind her. Turning, 
she saw that its occupant was a stout police oflScer. 

"Halt !" he called to her roughly. 

For a moment the world turned black before her 
eyes. Then she was herself again. 

"Come here!" he cried sharply. "Where do you 
come from.f^" 

"From the province of Orlov." 

"Where is your passport .f*" 

"At my lodging." 

"Well, get in with the driver. We'll soon see the 
passport, if you have one." 

The carriage started off, in a cloud of dust. Cather- 
ine was surprised to see that they drove straight to 
her lodging place, without asking where it was. Then 
she knew that there had been a discovery. 

It was a hot day, and the windows of the hut had 
been taken out, to let in more air. The servant girl 
was standing at one side, near the stump of an old 
tree. She was deadly pale, and her face looked be- 
wildered — almost idiotic. Catherine saw that she 



80 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

had been responsible for the misfortune. The simple 
girl had found that Catherine's pack contained papers 
and a map, and had told the wonderful news to her 
friends. It had passed from one to another till it 
reached the ears of the police. 

"Passports!" growled the policeman. 

The driver ran into the hut and brought out Cather- 
ine's host. 

"Passports!" shouted the policeman again. The 
host ran in, and came out, waving Catherine's passport 
wildly in the air. 

The officer began to question Catherine, and tried 
to take her by the chin, as superiors do to peasants. 
She resented the familiarity, and thus betrayed that 
she was no peasant. A wicked flash shot from his 
eyes. 

"Where are her things .f^" he shouted, turning to the 
trembling host. The man thought his lodger was 
accused of theft. As he had seen nothing new in her 
wardrobe, he answered, "Your honor, she has no 
things." 

"No things ! What are those .'^" 

He pointed to the heavy packs in the corner. 

"Oh, those are her own things." 

"Well, those are just what I want. Bring them 
here." 

The packs were dragged into the middle of the room 
and opened. "Ha !" cried the police agent exultantly, 
as he pulled out a handful of revolutionary pamphlets. 
"So, you can read and write .f^" he said tauntingly to 
Catherine; but he had dropped the familiar "thou" 
and addressed her as "you." She made no answer. 
She had seated herself on the large wooden chest, and 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSL\N REVOLUTION 81 

was eating her two apples with perfect coolness. She 
felt like an unconcerned spectator looking on at a play. 

The officer was beside himself with excitement and 
joy. He seldom had to do with any case more im- 
portant than tracing a runaway hog or a few stolen 
chickens. It was a great triumph to have caught 
a revolutionist. Meanwhile a crowd had gathered. 
Outside the windows, in the yard and in the room, 
men, women, and children stood looking and listening 
eagerly, full of curiosity and fear. 

His eyes almost starting out of his head with ex- 
citement, the police officer began to read the manifesto 
of the revolutionists aloud to the crowd, with violent 
intonations and more violent gestures. Whenever a 
passage excited his particular wrath, he would swell 
his voice. Then he sent for the District Attorney, and 
the District Attorney read the incendiary document 
aloud all over again. The priest was summoned, and he 
too read it aloud. The officer sent for the judge and 
the chief of police. Meanwhile the peasants had 
been listening to the manifesto with very different 
feelings from those of the officials. As that simple 
but stirring proclamation of freedom, equality, and 
love was read, they supposed in their ignorance that 
it was the lost "original pages", the much-longed-for 
proclamation from the Czar. The good news spread, 
and the crowd grew larger and larger. Then suddenly 
the chief of police arrived, glanced at the wild, joyous 
faces around, and seized the document. 

"What is this.?" he asked Catherine roughly. 

"Propaganda," she replied, "with which the District 
Attorney and the gendarme have been very viciously 
inciting the people." 



82 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

"Search her," said the chief of police. 

Some peasant women took Catherine into the little 
cabin and locked the door. But they refused to 
search her. They wept, and admired her calmness. 
She had nothing about her but two rubles, a blank 
envelope, and a few burnt matches. 

She was taken under guard to the sinister looking 
building about which she had wondered, and was 
led down into the Black Hole. 

"As I went down," she says, "two besotted wretches 
were stumbling up. I was pushed in, the heavy door 
slammed, and bolts rattled in total darkness. I took 
a step forward, and slipped, for the floor was soft 
with excrement. I stood still until, deadly sick, I 
sank down on a pile of straw and rags. A minute 
later I was stung sharply back to consciousness, and 
sprang up covered with vermin. I leaned against the 
walls and found them wet. So I stood up all night 
in the middle of the hole. And this was the beginning 
of Siberia." 

Her first anxiety was to send a warning to Stephano- 
vitch. Otherwise he would be arrested as soon as 
he came back. In Kiev there was a woman in the 
highest circles of the nobility who was a revolutionist. 
She had told her colleagues who were scattered over 
the country that in case of danger they might send 
important communications to her, and she would 
pass them on. With her burnt matches Catherine 
wrote in the blank envelope, "Aunt has fallen ill", 
and addressed it to the lady in Kiev. 

When Catherine had been put in prison, twelve 
sentinels, armed to the teeth, had been stationed 
around the walls. Through the barred window she 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 83 

called to one of tliem, and gave him her last two rubles 
to send the message to its address. He took it to the 
chief of police. The local police authorities decided 
to send the message, at the same time notifying the 
police in Kiev, so that they might shadow everybody 
concerned, and track the conspirators to their lair. 
The telegram was sent, and a messenger boy brought 
it to the court lady. She read it and reread it, with a 
puzzled face. Then she handed it back, saying, "Why 
have you brought this message here.^* There must be 
some mistake. It is not for me. My aunt is staying 
with me at present." The boy took back the message, 
and the sleuth who had been a concealed witness re- 
turned to police headquarters perplexed. They did 
not know what to think ; and, as the lady was of high 
rank and very rich, they did nothing further in the 
matter. She passed the message on to all the revolu- 
tionists of her acquaintance, and within twenty-four 
hours it reached Stephanovitch. 

Catherine was held in prison in Petrograd for a 
long time, awaiting trial. She says : 

"My cell was nine feet long, five feet wide, and seven 
feet high. It was clean, and a hole above gave plenty 
of air. My bed was an iron bracket with mattress 
and pillow of straw, rough gray blanket, coarse sheet 
and pillow case. I wore my own clothes. This cell 
I never left for over two years. 

"In solitary confinement .f* No. I joined a social 
club. 

"On that first evening I lay in the dark, telling my- 
self that our struggle must go on in spite of this calam- 
ity, and yet fearful for it, as we fear for things we love. 
I lay motionless, and solitary confinement began to 



84 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

work on my mind, as the System had planned it 
should. Suddenly I sat up quickly. I could hear 
nothing; but as I started to lie down, my ear again 
approached the iron pipe supporting my cot. Tick, 
tick, tickity, tick, tick. I felt along the pipe, and 
found that it went through to the next cell. Again 
I heard : Tick, tick, tick, tickity, tick. I had once 
heard a code planned at a meeting in Moscow, but I 
could not recall it. At last I had an idea. There 
are thirty-five letters in the Russian alphabet. I 
rapped. Once ! Then twice ! Then three times ! So 
on until for the last letter I rapped thirty-five. No 
response. Again, slowly and distinctly. My heart 
was beating now. Steps came slowly down the cor- 
ridor. The guard approached and passed my door. 
His steps died away. Suddenly — Tick ! — Tick, tick i 

— Tick, tick, tick ! — and through to thirty -five. 
Then slowly we spelled out words, and by this clumsy 
code the swifter code was taught me. After that for 
three years the pipe was almost always talking. How 
fast we talked ! The pipe sounded like this." 

Her gray head bent over the table, her face was 
flushed, her eyes flashed back through forty years of 
danger and prison, and her strong, supple fingers 
rolled out the ticks at lightning speed. 

"Our club had over a hundred members in solitary 
confinement; some in cells on either side of mine, 
some below and some above. Did we tell stories? 
Yes, and good ones ! Young students — keen wits 

— high spirits!" She laughed merrily. "How some 
of those youngsters made love ! A mere boy, two 
cells to my right, vowed he adored the young girl of 
nineteen, five cells to my left on the floor above, 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 85 

whom he had never set eyes on. I helped tick his 
gallant speeches and her responses continually along. 
They passed to the cell below hers, and were ticked 
up the heating pipe to her by a sad little woman who 
was grieving for her babies. Did they ever meet ? 
Ah, Siberia is as large as the United States and France 
and England and Germany all together. 

"Our club was not wholly a club of pleasure. Some 
of the members died of consumption ; others killed 
themselves, and others went insane. Sometimes the 
pipe raved. It spoke many sad good-byes to wives 
and children. But the pipe was not often so, for a 
revolutionist must smile though the heart be torn. 
We older ones continually urged the young girls to 
be strong, for they told us how they were taken out 
and brutally treated to make them give evidence. A 
very few broke down, but there were many young 
girls who endured, unshaken, months of this brutality. 

"From new prisoners we heard cheering news. The 
fire of our Idea had spread among workmen as well as 
peasants ; in the factories many were arrested ; some 
were imprisoned here, and joined our club for a time; 
but they were soon condemned into exile. Still the 
Idea spread. In 1877 came that tremendous demon- 
stration on the Kazan Square in St. Petersburg. 
Hundreds were imprisoned; again many joined our 
club and were condemned, sent us last words of cheer 
along the pipe, and so were rushed off to Siberia. 

"In 1878 we were tried. Out of the three hundred 
imprisoned more than one hundred had died or gone 
insane. We one hundred and ninety-three survivors 
were packed into a little hall. Over half had belonged 
to our club, and I had a strange shock as I now looked 



86 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

at these clubmates with whom I had talked every day. 
They were white, thin, and crippled, but still the same 
stout hearts. We nerved each other to refuse to be 
tried, for the trial we knew was to be a farce, with a 
special jury of only seven, of whom but one was a 
peasant, and with judges appointed by the Czar. They 
divided us into groups of ten or fifteen. The trials 
lasted half a year. When my turn came, I protested 
against the farce. I said to the judges: 'I have the 
honor to belong to the Russian socialistic and revolu- 
tionary party, and consequently do not recognize the 
authority of the Czar's courts over me.' For this I 
was at once taken out and my prison term was length- 
ened to five years as a hard labor convict in the mines. 
This is the punishment given to a murderer. I was 
the first woman to be sentenced to the mines as a 
political offender. My term served, I was to be an 
exile in Siberia for some years longer. 

"Secretly, at night, to avoid a demonstration, ten 
of us were led out. Other tens followed on successive 
nights. In the street below were eleven 'telegas' — 
heavy hooded vehicles with three horses each. In 
one I was placed, with a stout gendarme squeezed in 
on each side, to remain there for two months. Just 
in front of my knees sat the driver. We went off at a 
gallop, and our 5000-mile journey began. 

"The Great Siberian Iload has been feelingly de- 
scribed by Mr. Kennan. A succession of bumps of 
all sizes. Our springless telegas jolted and bounced; 
my two big gendarmes lurched ; our horses galloped 
continually, for they were changed every few hours. 
Often we bounced for a whole week without stopping 
over ten minutes day or night. We suffered that 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 87 

peculiar agony that comes from long lack of sleep. 
Our officer ordered the gendarmes never to leave us. 
At times we women held shawls between the gendarmes 
and our friends. Three wives who had come to share 
their husbands' exile were treated in the same way. 
We were all dressed in convict clothes. The men had 
also heavy chains on feet and wrists. Their heads 
were partly shaved. Our officer kept the money 
given him by our anxious friends at home, and gave 
us each the government allowance of four and one- 
half cents a day. 

"For sleep, we were placed in the etapes (wayside 
prisons). Mr. Kennan has well described the cells 
— reeking, crawling, infected with scurvy, consump- 
tion, and typhoid. They had log walls roughly covered 
with plaster, often red with vermin killed by tormented 
sleepers. The air was invariably noisome from the 
open excrement tubs. The long bench on which we 
slept had no bedclothes. Through the walls we heard 
the endless jangling of fetters, the moaning of women, 
the cries of sick babies. On the walls were a mass of 
inscriptions, names of friends who had gone before 
us, news of death and insanity, and shrewd bits of 
advice for outwitting the gendarmes. Some were 
freshly cut, but one worm-eaten love poem looked a 
century old. For along this Great Siberian Road 
over a million men, women, and children have dragged, 
250,000 since 1875,* people from every social class; 
murderers and degenerates side by side with tender 
girls who were exiled through the jealous wife of some 
petty town official. 

*This was spoken in 1904. The numbers have increased enormously 
since then. 



88 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

"You keep asking me for scenes and stories. But 
you see we were thinking of our Dream, and did not 
notice so much the life outside. Did any die? Yes, 
one by typhoid. Our officer rushed the sufferer on 
at full gallop, until his delirious cries from the jolt- 
ing vehicle so roused our protests that he was left 
in the Irkutsk prison, where he died. Were there any 
children ? Yes, one little wife had a baby ten months 
old, but the rest of us did all we could to help her, 
and the child survived the journey. Friends to say 
good-bye ? Ah, let me think. Yes — as we passed 
through Krasnoyarsk a student's old mother had 
come from a distance to see him. Our officer refused 
to allow the boy to kiss her. She caught but a glimpse, 
the gendarmes jerked him back into the vehicle and 
they galloped on. As I came by I saw her white, 
haggard old face. Then she fell beside the road." 



CHAPTER VII 

On reaching the mines of Kara, she found that 
the prison year was only eight months, and that the 
forty months she had spent in prison would be deducted 
from her sentence. She found, also, that the political 
convicts were not required to take part in the actual 
hard labor of the mines. Their punishment, which 
to some of them seemed even worse, was that of en- 
forced idleness. After staying ten months, she left 
Kara, as she then hoped, forever. 

She was taken to Barguzin, a bleak little group of 
huts near the Arctic Circle. In an address given 
while in America, she told some incidents of the journey. 
She said : 

"Picture to yourselves, on a cold day in autumn, 
with the ground frozen and the wind blowing hard 
enough to take your breath away, a long procession 
of hundreds of prisoners, traveling on foot across the 
steppes beyond Lake Baikal. They were a band of 
convicts who had served out their terms in tLe mines 
of Kara, and were on their way to the places where 
they were condemned to live in exile. 

"I was one of those prisoners. I was on foot like 
the rest. I always walked ahead of the column, fol- 
lov/ed by several soldiers of our guard. The women 
who were ill and the children were crying and lament- 

89 



90 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

ing in the wretched carts that dragged them along at 
a foot's pace, jolting them and throwing them about. 
Every one was shivering with cold ; nobody spoke ; 
and the silence of the desert was broken only by the 
blasts of the wind. I 

"Then on the horizon we saw a black speck, which 
grew gradually larger and darker. After half an hour 
we could make out a crowd of men, hardly able to 
drag one foot after the other, staggering, thin, with 
livid faces, barefooted, and in rags. Among them 
there were no songs, no words, no sound but the rat- 
tling of their chains, which echoed like mournful 
bells in the cold air of the desert. The soldiers escort- 
ing this immense mass of people prodded on with the 
butts of their guns the weaker ones, who could hardly 
keep up with the crowd. They were runaway con- 
victs, who had been caught and were being taken to 
the mines to serve out additional terms of hard labor. 

"Our band halted, and I approached the unfortunate 
men. In Russia the ordinary (non-political) prisoners 
are always proud to have among them some persons 
who have been condemned for noble reasons. They 
look upon the political prisoners as superior beings, 
the more so as the officials with whom they are brought 
in contact are the last persons in the world to command 
any esteem. So I was surrounded by these convicts, 
these thieves and brigands, who made haste to offer 
me their services to carry letters to my friends at Kara, 
and to perform any other commissions with which I 
would entrust them. And it must be said that they 
kept their promises faithfully, regarding it as an honor 
to be of service to people like us. 

"I asked them why they looked so wretched, and 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 91 

why so many of tliem were ill. They answered, 
* Because bread costs twelve cents a pound, and we are 
given only six cents a day to buy food. There were 
two hundred and fifty of us when we left the prison at 
Irkutsk. Now there are only two hundred and ten 
left. Forty have died on the way, of hunger and cold.' 

"The soldiers, who had drawn near our group, 
complained that they had not carts enough to take 
up the dying. They said we should find six corpses 
lying by the roadside, in the twenty versts between 
there and the next halting-place. The gloomy faces 
of the vagabond convicts showed that a similar death 
awaited many of them on the march of hundreds of 
versts that they would have to make before reaching 
Kara. 

*'Most of these men, perhaps, had been made vaga- 
bonds by the horrible conditions created by autocratic 
officials, accustomed to look upon the common people 
as chattels to be exploited for their profit. You can 
imagine my feelings whenever we passed a dead body, 
gaunt and almost naked, as we continued our funeral 
march. 

"A few days later, we arrived at another halting- 
place, near Verkhni Udinsk. This time it was a 
beautiful day, with the sun shining so brightly as to 
rejoice one's heart. The great gate opened before us, 
and we entered a large courtyard full of women all 
dressed in white, with their faces painted and their 
hair adorned to the best of their ability. For some 
days the soldiers of our escort had been laughing and 
saying that we should soon meet a band of women 
condemned to imprisonment on Saghalien, to which 
place the Russian government transports women con- 



92 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

victs that are young enough to have children, in order 
to increase the population of that desert island. But, 
as it takes a great many months to get there, moving 
from halting-place to halting-place, and as the convicts 
in Russian prisons are regarded as having not only no 
political rights but no human rights, the Siberian 
government conceived the idea of transforming the 
bands of women destined to Saghalien into bands of 
prostitutes, to whom every officer, every functionary, 
every soldier, and all their friends and acquaintances, 
could have access at will. 

"I knew nothing about it, and was greatly surprised 
to see women prisoners, on a journey, adorned as if 
for a festival. But at nightfall, when I heard cries, 
sobs, shouts, the coarse voices of drunken men — 
when I rushed to my cell window, and saw horrible 
scenes, impossible to describe — then I understood 
it all, and I thought I should go insane. When anyone 
has survived such sights, how can he ever forget the 
misery of his fellow creatures ? How can he do other- 
wise than swear to devote his life to the deliverance 
of his people .f^ Next morning at sunrise, when, worn 
out with sleeplessness and mental torture, I went out 
to get a breath of air, I saw before me, going away 
through the great gate, a herd of wretched women, 
clad in filthy rags, their faces pale and drawn with 
suffering. They were the unfortunate women prison- 
ers, starting out for the next halting-place, there to 
be subjected to fresh degradation." 

Catherine reached Barguzin in February, with the 
thermometer forty-five degrees below zero. Seeing 
a few forlorn little children, she proposed to start a 
school. The police agent showed her the police rules 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 93 

sent out from Petrograd. They forbade an exiled 
teacher to teach, an exiled doctor to cure the sick, or 
any educated exile to exercise his profession in Siberia. 
The government feared that if they were allowed to 
minister to the people, they might spread their revolu- 
tionary ideas. In Siberia ex-statesmen were often 
forced to hire themselves out to the Cossacks as com- 
mon laborers at five cents a day. 

In Barguzin there were three young students. They 
were "administrative exiles" — that is, they had 
been banished without trial, by "administrative order", 
because they had fallen under suspicion. Catherine 
and the students made up their minds to try to escape. 
She says : 

"We searched two years for a guide to lead us a 
thousand miles to the Pacific. We found a bent old 
peasant who had made the journey years before. 
With him we set out one night, leading four pack 
horses. We soon found the old man useless. We 
had maps and a compass, but these did little good 
in the Taiga, that region of forest crags and steep 
ravines where we walked now toward heaven and now 
toward the regions below. Often I watched my poor 
stupid beast go rolling and snorting down a ravine, 
hoping as he passed each tree that the next would 
stop his fall. Then for hours we would use all our 
arts and energies to drag and coax him up. It was 
beautiful weather by day, but bitterly cold by night. 
We had hard-tack, pressed tea, a little tobacco, and a 
small supply of brandy, which was served out in my 
thimble — one thimbleful for each. We walked and 
climbed about six hundred miles ; in a straight line 
perhaps two hundred. 



94 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

"Meanwhile the police had searched in vain. The 
Governor had telegraphed to Petrograd, and from 
there the order had come that we be found at any cost. 
The plan adopted was characteristic of the System. 
Fifty neighboring farmers were seized (in harvest 
time), and were exiled from their farms and families 
until they should bring us back. After weeks of 
search, they found us in the Apple Mountains. Their 
leader shouted across the ravine that unless we gave 
in they must keep on our trail, and escape was im- 
possible. As we went back, around each of us rode 
ten armed men. 

"The three students were sent in different directions 
up into the worst of the Arctic wilderness — Yakutsk. 

"As punishment for my attempt to escape I was 
sentenced to four years' hard labor in Kara and to 
forty blows of the lash. A physician came into my 
cell to see if I were strong enough to live through the 
agony. I saw at once that, being afraid to flog a 
woman political prisoner, a thing for which there was 
no precedent, by this trick of declaring me too ill to be 
punished, they wished to establish the precedent of 
the sentence, in order that others might be flogged 
in the future. I insisted that I was strong enough, 
and that the court had no right to record such a sen- 
tence unless they flogged me at once. The sentence 
was not carried out." 

On getting back to Kara, Catherine was overjoyed 
to find about twenty other women who were political 
convicts. At the time of her first imprisonment 
there she had been the only one. In spite of the prison 
hardships, this was one of the happiest seasons of her 
life, it was so great a delight to her to associate with 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OP RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 95 

SO many women of the noblest character, all of them 
devoted to the cause of Russian freedom. 

The women political convicts lived together in four 
low cells. She says : 

"Our clothing was a chemise of coarse cloth, a 
skirt reaching to the ankles, no drawers, no stockings, 
and a huge pair of coarse shoes. Each of us had also 
a gray dressing-gown, with a yellow figure on the back, 
marking her as a convict. We had plenty of clothes 
of our own, but they were stowed away in one of the 
storehouses of the prison, and we were not allowed 
to have them. 

"After a few weeks eight of the male political pris- 
oners escaped, leaving dummies in their places. As 
the guards never took more than a hasty look into 
that noisome cell, they did not discover the trick for 
weeks. Then mounted Cossacks rode out. The man- 
hunt spread. Some of the fugitives struggled through 
jungles, over mountains, and through swamps a thou- 
sand miles to Vladivostok, saw the longed-for American 
vessels, and there on the docks were recaptured. All 
were brought back to Kara. 

"For this we were all punished. One morning the 
Cossack guards entered our cells, seized us, tore off 
our clothes, and dressed us in convict suits alive with 
vermin. That scene cannot be described. One of 
the women attempted suicide. We were thrown into 
an old prison, where we were lodged in a long, low, 
grimy hall, with little cells like horse stalls opening 
off it on either side. Each of us had a stall six feet 
by five. On winter nights the stall doors were left 
open for warmth, but in summer each woman was locked 
at night in her own black hole. 



96 LITTLE (Grandmother of Russian revolution 

"There were no windows, only two small panes of 
glass, high up in the wall. At each end of the hall 
was a window, and a large stove where we cooked our 
food. The building was old, filthy, and dilapidated, 
with gaps in the walls, through which the snow and 
ice came into our cells every night. The roof leaked, 
and the icicles formed stalactites and stalagmites. 

"At first we used to attack the icicles with knives, 
trying to clear our cells of them, but it was of no use; 
they always came back. In a Siberian winter the 
thermometer goes down to fifty degrees below zero, 
and at Kara the winter is eight months long. There 
are only two months when it does not freeze at night. 

"The prison was literally swarming with vermin. 
They covered the walls, the floor, the beds, our clothes. 
For three months we did not use our bunks, but de- 
voted ourselves to fighting the insects. We smeared 
the walls with tallow from our candles, and then set 
the tallow on fire. We used pails of scalding water. 
After months of incessant warfare, we succeeded in 
exterminating them. 

"Our food was a little black bread and twelve 
pounds of meat a month, with which to make soup. 
The meat was blue and smelt badly. We had no vege- 
tables. 

"My fellow prisoners were mostly young women of 
the nobility, excellent and charming, but delicately 
bred, and not physically able to bear such hardships. 
They sickened one by one. Their bodies became 
blue with scurvy. 

' "In answer to our entreaties for vegetables, we 
were finally told that we might have potato plants 
— not the potatoes, but the tops which had been 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSL\N REVOLUTION 97 

chopped up, slightly salted and packed in a silo as for 
cattle fodder. We tried these potato leaves in our 
soup for three or four days, but we could not eat them, 

"We sent for the doctor. He came and inspected 
us, but told us he had orders from the government 
not to give us any medical care. My companions 
grew more and more ill. We made a small riot, battered 
on the hall door, and demanded the doctor with a loud 
noise. The ringleaders were bound hand and foot 
and shut into their cells. 

"But the Russian government has not enough 
strength of character to stick steadily to any one course, 
even a course of cruelty. After refusing and refusing, 
if the prisoners persist long enough in keeping up a 
protest, being noisy and making themselves a nuisance, 
the jailors will often end by saying, 'Very well, the 
deuce take you, have the doctor, if you must.' 

"The doctor was at last allowed to visit us; but 
my companions died one after another till half of 
them were gone." 

Catherine herself did not even fall ill. She says 
she was too busy nursing the others. But her friends 
in America were impressed by her broad shoulders 
and deep chest, which showed that she had an un- 
commonly powerful physique. At the time of her 
visit to this country, out of all the women who had been 
her fellow prisoners at Kara, only one or two survived, 
completely broken down in health, while she was still 
active and vigorous. She says : 

"For three years we never breathed the outside air. 
We struggled constantly against the ill treatment 
inflicted on us. After one outrage we lay like a row 
of dead women for nine days without touching food, 



98 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

until certain promises were finally exacted from the 
warden. This 'hunger strike' was used repeatedly. 
To thwart it we were often bound hand and foot while 
Cossacks tried to force food down our throats." 

After serving out her term at Kara, Catherine was 
taken to Selenginsk, a little Buriat hamlet on the 
frontier of China. From Kara to Selenginsk was a 
journey of a thousand miles. They made it entirely 
on foot. They used to walk about thirty miles a day 
for two days, and rest every third day. There were 
two women in the party, and about a hundred men, 
most of them ordinary {i.e., not political) convicts. 
They were guarded by a squad of soldiers. 

It was at Selenginsk that George Kennan saw her. 
In his book, "Siberia and the Exile System", he 
describes her as follows (Volume 2, pages 121-122) : 

"She was perhaps thirty -five years of age, with a 
strong, intelligent, but not handsome face, a frank, 
unreserved manner, and sympathies that seemed to 
be warm, impulsive, and generous. Her face bore 
traces of much suffering, and her thick, dark, wavy 
hair, which had been cut short in prison at the mines, 
was streaked here and there with gray; but neither 
hardship, nor exile, nor penal servitude had been able 
to break her brave, finely-tempered spirit, or to shake 
her convictions of honor and duty. She was, as I 
soon discovered, a woman of much cultivation. She 
spoke French, German, and English, was a fine musician, 
and impressed me as being in every way an attractive 
and interesting woman . . . She had been sent as a 
forced colonist to this wretched, God-forsaken Buriat 
settlement of Selenginsk, where she was under the direct 
supervision and control of the interesting chief of 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 99 

police who accompanied us to the Buddhist lamasery 
of Goose Lake. There was not another educated 
woman, so far as I know, within a hundred miles in 
any direction ; she received from the government 
an allowance of a dollar and a quarter a, week for her 
support ; her correspondence was under police control ; 
she was separated for life from her family and friends ; 
and she had, it seemed to me, absolutely nothing to 
look forward to except a few years, more or less, of 
hardship and privation, and at last burial in a lonely 
graveyard beside the Selenga river, where no sympa- 
thetic eye might ever rest upon the unpainted wooden 
cross that would briefly chronicle her life and death. 
The unshaken courage with which this unfortunate 
woman contemplated her dreary future, and the faith 
that she manifested in the ultimate triumph of liberty 
in her native country, were as touching as they were 
heroic. Almost the last words that she said to me 
were : ' Mr. Kennan, we may die in exile, and our 
children may die in exile, and our children's children 
may die in exile, but something will come of it at last.' 
I have never seen or heard of Madame Breshkovskaya 
since that day; but I cannot recall her last words to 
me without feeling conscious that all my standards of 
courage, of fortitude, and of heroic self-sacrifice have 
been raised for all time, and raised by the hand of a 
woman." 

Catherine gave Mr. Kennan a letter for her former 
fellow convicts at Kara. When she had been serving 
her term with them, she had often said to them, in 
joke: 'America is a free country, and the Americans 
hate oppression. Some day some American will come 
here and help us to escape." Everybody understood 



100 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

that this was merely a fairy tale, but it amused the- 
convicts. 

When Mr. Kennan arrived at Kara, he found the 
political prisoners living outside the mines in little 
huts. A secret message was sent around to them that 
an American had arrived with a letter from Catherine 
Breshkovsky, and that he was waiting in a certain 
hut to read it to them. But nobody believed the 
news. Everybody said, "Oh, we all know about 
Catherine Breshkovsky and her American. That is 
just a joke." It was not until a second and a third 
urgent message had been sent that some one at last 
went, still incredulous, and peeped into the cabin, 
and came rushing back in amazement to announce 
V^ that there really was an American there. 

The eight years that Catherine spent at Selenginsk 
were the hardest part of the long term that she 
served in Siberia. Usually she had no one except a 
few natives to speak to, although from time to time 
one or two other political exiles were there for a few 
weeks. In winter, with the thermometer from twenty 
to fifty below zero, she used to put her chair on top of 
the brick stove, and sit with her head close to the 
thatch. In Selenginsk she caught the severe rheu- 
matism that still affects her. She says : 

" The government allowed me $6 a month. My hut 
rent was 50 cents, wood $1.50, food $4.00. My friends 
at home sent money too, but of course I sent this to 
my friends at Kara. At long intervals one of their 
many letters reached me — sometimes sewed in the 
lining of a Buriat cap. I grew almost frantic with 
loneliness, and to keep my sanity I would run out on 
the snow shouting passionate orations, or even playing 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION lOl 

the prima donna, and singing grand opera arias to 
the bleak landscape, which never applauded. 

"My heart burned with a passionate desire to escape, 
to renew the struggle. I languished like a hawk in a 
cage. There was not a day when I did not think of 
escaping, and I was ready to run any risk; but the 
thing was impossible. Those eight empty years in 
Selenginsk have remained as a gray void in my memory. 

"Only the thought of my comrades' suffering made 
me forget my own. I filled my time with work, so as 
to be able to send my earnings to the dark prisons, the 
snowbound wastes, the hungry, forgotten comrades. 
I read and studied, in order to know how mankind 
lived, and how far or near was the possibility of trans- 
forming it." 

At last she became a "free exile", i.e., she received 
a passport permitting her to travel all over Siberia. 
Her health had been much impaired, but she soon 
grew strong again. The last four years of her term in 
Siberia were spent in going from town to town, talking 
with the people, young and old, and preparing them 
for revolution. At Irkutsk, Tobolsk, Tiumen, v»^herever 
she sojourned, there grew up around her a circle of 
determined revolutionists. She made allies of some 
of the leading citizens of Siberia. 

She still persisted in giving away to those more 
needy than herself the money sent her from home. 
Sometimes, when she had hundreds of rubles in her 
basket, she went around (to use her own words) "as 
hungry as a dog." She would walk the streets and 
make calls upon her friends, with the secret hope that 
someone might offer her a cup of tea or a bit of bread. 
She earned some money by sewing, but this also she 



102 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

sent to Kara. She became hardened to privation. 
Arriving in Boston once after a long railroad journey, 
she mentioned casually that she had had nothing to 
eat all day. When a friend expressed horror, she 
answered, "Oh, one day — what is that.^^" 

As her term of exile drew toward a close, she knew 
by the increasing procession of political exiles from 
Russia that the work of the revolutionists was spread- 
ing. With hundreds of comrades, she planned for 
the future carrying on of the struggle. In September, 
1896, her term expired, and she went home. 



CHAPTER VIII 

After her return to Russia, Catherine spent three 
months in visiting relatives and old friends. To her 
surprise, she found that her surviving sister had aged 
much more rapidly than she had. She drew the 
conclusion that strong mental occupation and inter- 
est are more effective in preserving health, even under 
great hardships, than a life of comfort and luxury. 
She said of her sister's family : " They were worried 
about their coffee; they were worried about their 
garden ; they were worried about everything. I had 
had no baggage for thirty years, and I was not worried 
about anything." 

Barbara Tchaykovsky wrote in after years: "I 
remember how, when she stayed with us, the sight of 
her tiny handbag, containing all her worldly posses- 
sions, made me ashamed of attaching much importance 
to mere personal comfort, while men and women were 
being tortured." 

Her son Nicholas had been brought up by kind but 
conservative relatives, who had told him that his 
mother was dead. Educated in the ideas of the aris- 
tocracy, he had no sympathy with her aims. She had 
one interview with him, and then parted with him, as 
she supposed, for life, or until the coming of the revo- 
lution; for she could not keep up any communication 

103 



104 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

with him without danger of bringing him under sus- 
picion from the government. 

Then she scoured Russia for the remnants of the 
"Old Guard." She had not even the names and ad- 
dresses of the old comrades who still survived. With 
time and patience, she brought them together, and 
promptly plunged anew into her old work of organiz- 
ing the peasants. She found them greatly changed. 
They were even more wretched than they had been 
twenty years before; but they were also much more 
intelligent, and more nearly ripe for revolution. She 
says : 

"When I began again to travel, I noticed at once a 
vast difference. I no longer walked, but had money 
for the railroads, and so covered ten times the ground. 
For six years the railway compartment was my home. 
I held meetings on river boats by night, in city tene- 
ment rooms, in peasant huts, and in the forests ; but, 
unlike the old times, the way had always been prepared 
by some one before me. I was constantly protected." 

For several years she traveled openly, under her own 
name, although she did her organizing in secret. Then, 
finding that she was suspected, she disguised herself 
as a peasant, and thus kept on with her work for some 
years more. 

The government made every effort to catch her, 
but without success. The peasants loved her, and 
would no more have betrayed her than the Scotch would 
have betrayed Prince Charlie. She had many hair- 
breadth escapes. Once she was in a railroad station 
when the police had guarded all the doors and were 
watching every out-going train for her. In the waiting 
room, she got into conversation with a party of nuns 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 105 

and their abbess. The abbess was attracted by her 
and invited her to visit their convent. She left the 
station in their company, without suspicion, and spent 
several days in the convent, while the police scoured 
the city for her in vain. 

Once the police surrounded a country house where 
she was visiting friends. It was the cook's day out. 
She put on the cook's clothes, and stood in the kitchen 
cooking the dinner while they searched the house. 

Once she was staying in the south of Russia, dis- 
guised as a Frenchwoman. On some rumor, the 
police came along, examining passports in every house 
in the block. As they entered the front door, she 
slipped out at the rear, and into the back door of the 
next house, which they had just left. 

At another time she was staying in Kiev with a girl 
of seventeen, an active revolutionary worker, who had 
been suspected and was under police surveillance. 
They slept together in her tiny tenement room. The 
spies watching the window observed that there was 
some one with her. The next night suddenly a gen- 
darme knocked and said, "There is some one sleeping 
with you. Why have you not announced it to the 
police?" Fortunately, Catherine was out at the 
time. The girl was dreadfully frightened, but managed 
to reply, "Only my grandmother who has come to see 
me." The moment he had gone she slipped out into 
the rain and found Catherine at a secret meeting. She 
told what had happened, crying, "Oh, Granny, Granny ! 
They are on your track, they are on your track!" 
"Do not be troubled," said Catherine. "If they had 
suspected that it was I, they would have broken the 
door down and come straight in. They only want 



106 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

to know who is staying with you." Her friends im- 
mediately dressed her up in silks and fashionable furs, 
and sent her to the railroad station in a carriage, in 
style, as a great lady. ■ 

During her visit to America a woman of wealth made 
her a present of a trunkful of handsome clothes. She 
was at a loss what to do with them, but finally accepted 
them, saying that they might be useful to her some- 
time as a disguise. This suggestion delighted the kind 
heart of the giver, who had been much disappointed 
at the prospect of her present being refused. 

When hard pressed by the police, Catherine could 
change herself at will into an old peasant woman. She 
showed us how she once did this in Odessa. In a 
twinkling her shawl came over her head, her hands 
were clasped in her lap, her head nodded. A bent, 
decrepit old peasant woman looked from under the 
shawl with a vacant grin. When she wanted to evade 
the police in the streets, she would often kneel down 
before the sacred images in some outdoor shrine, and 
personate an old peasant woman praying with bowed 
head. 

Catherine had begun as a Liberal, but long before 
this she had become an ardent Socialist. The aspect 
of the revolutionary movement in Russia had changed 
also. She said : 

"Our old 'People's Party' had become the 'Party 
of the Will of the People', and had died when thou- 
sands of its leaders were sent to exile or prison. In 
1887 the Social Democratic Party was formed, work- 
ing mainly in the factories and mills. Here they 
found ready listeners, for the laborers, who had formed 
unions to mitigate their wretched condition, were 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 107 

often lashed to death. It was against the law to go 
on strike. Once when a labor leader had been ar- 
rested and a committee from the workers came to 
the prison to ask his release, they were shot down 
by the prison officials. Several times men were shot 
for parading on the First of May. Among the work- 
ers the new party gained strength until about 1900. 
Then all its Jewish members seceded and formed 
the 'Bund', which favored immediate revolution. 
Others too seceded." 

About this time the party of the Socialist Revolu- 
tionists came into existence. Catherine Breshkovsky 
was one of its leading spirits, with Doctor Gregory 
Gershuni ^ and other fearless souls. They concerned 
themselves chiefly with the peasants, who make up 
140,000,000 of the 170,000,000 inhabitants of Russia. 
Like the Social Democrats, they believed in the gen- 
eral principles of Socialism and worked to bring in the 
Socialist commonwealth. But they held that the first 
step must be to overthrow the autocracy. Freedom 
by revolution was their slogan. 

In 1900, the government issued a general order to 
the police throughout the empire, that three revolu- 
tionary leaders were wanted — Catherine Breshkovsky, 
Gershuni, and Melnikov. By this time revolutionary 
circles existed all through Russia. Scores of secret 
printing offices, in Switzerland and in Russia itself, 
were working day and night, pouring out revolution- 
ary literature, and the "underground mails" carried 
it from one end of the country to the other. The 
Socialist Revolutionist party was teaching the peas- 
ants the old lesson — that the land must be owned 
^See Appendixi 



108 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

by the people, and that the government of the Czar 
must be overthrown. In order not to take needless 
risks, the central committee of the party was scattered 
all through Russia. Its members seldom met, but 
constantly planned and directed the work, instructing 
the provincial committees, which in turn passed on 
the word to the small local committees, and so down 
to the thousands of little groups of peasants and labor- 
ers that met by night in country huts and city tene- 
ments. The leaders traveled constantly from group 
to group. As soon as one was arrested another took 
his place. 

In 1901 the Fighting League was organized. It was 
made up wholly of Terrorists. Its object was to put 
to death officials who were guilty of particularly 
atrocious crimes, in the hope that their fate would be 
a warning to others. Catherine was in full sympathy 
with this movement. 

Political assassination is rightly abhorred in America. 
But in Russia there was no possibility of obtaining 
justice by law, even for the most monstrous crimes. 
No subject had any legal rights as against the Czar : 
and the Czar's irresponsible power was delegated to 
a whole army of police and other subordinate officials, 
who oppressed the people at their pleasure. The 
country's noblest men and women were persecuted, 
imprisoned, and exiled ; and the officials who treated 
them worst were thought to deserve best of the Czar. 

In the Caucasus, a convention of women teachers 
met to discuss plans for an improved curriculum. A 
Colonel who disapproved of teachers holding meet- 
ings for any purpose ordered the assembly to disperse. 
Two or three of the more spirited teachers went to 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 109 

him to protest. He was so enraged by the remon- 
strance that he said to his men, "These women are 
yours", and turned the whole convention of teachers 
over to the soldiers to be outraged. He could not be 
brought to justice. In the eyes of the government, 
such deeds were a mark of zeal, and were looked upon 
as deserving promotion rather than punishment. 
The Colonel was assassinated. So was Von Plehve, 
who as Chief of Police had started outrages against 
the Jews in 1881, and later, as Minister of the Interior, 
had caused the Kishineff massacre. He had also 
revived the use of the knout to lash men and women. 
A number of other officials of the same type were con- 
demned by the revolutionary secret tribunal and killed. 

The Fighting League, however, had a comparatively 
small membership. It was a sort of guerrilla force 
auxiliary to the great revolutionary movement. Revo- 
lution by the whole people was the object for which 
Catherine and her friends were striving. 

"In 1903," she writes in the "Neva" of Petrograd, 
"the Socialist Revolutionary party suffered great 
misfortunes. Wholesale arrests and searches robbed 
it of many of its leading workers, of its best printing 
offices, and stores of literature. It was necessary to 
replace all that. By this time the work of the party 
had grown strong abroad, thanks to our talented and 
zealous emigrants, who bent all their energies to the 
publication of party organs and popular books and 
pamphlets. 

"In order to recall these young people to immediate 
activity at home, in Russia, I went abroad for the first 
time. In May, 1903, I boarded a steamer at Odessa 
and went, by way of Roumania, Hungary, and Vienna, 



110 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

to Geneva, Switzerland, the centre of the party work- 
ers scattered in Paris, London, and Switzerland. At 
this conference we were joined by the old fighters 
of the '70's, Shishko, Volkhovsky, Lazareff, Tchay- 
kovsky. 

" The young people attended our meetings, and lis- 
tened eagerly. Victor Tchernoff, the editor-in-chief 
of our central organs (and Minister of Agriculture in 
Kernsky's first cabinet), victoriously defended the posi- 
tion of the party. I urged the necessity of tackling 
the real task, to propagate our ideas among the peasants 
and workmen, to organize all the forces able and ready 
to enter upon a battle with the old regime, ready to 
sacrifice their lives for a free Russia. And thus a 
stream of young people of both sexes began to flow 
back to Russia, carrying with them our literature, and 
the booklets 'In Battle Shalt Thou Obtain Thy Rights' 
were distributed all through the fatherland. This task 
of directing the forces of young Russia occupied two 
whole years of my life." 

In the meantime, in 1904, she visited the United 
States, to enlist help for the cause. 



CHAPTER IX 

Madame Breshkovsky (I shall give her hencefor- 
ward the name by which she was known in America) 
was warmly received in the United States. She ad- 
dressed great audiences in New York, Boston, Phil- 
adelphia, Chicago, and elsewhere. The meeting held 
to welcome her in Faneuil Hall, Boston, was typical. 
The following account is taken from the Woman's 
Journal of December 17, 1904 : 

"Seldom has Faneuil Hall seen so great an audience 
as gathered on the evening of Dec. 14 at the meeting 
called by the society of 'Friends of Russian Freedom' 
to welcome Madame Catherine Breshkovsky. 

"Nearly SOOO persons thronged Faneuil Hall, 
hundreds standing all through the evening. There 
were many distinguished persons on the platform. 
Hon. William Dudley Foulke, president of the Friends 
of Russian Freedom, occupied the chair. 

"Addresses Vv^ere made by Professor F. C. de Sumi- 
chrast and Professor Leo Wiener of Harvard, Mrs. 
Julia Ward Howe, Abraham Cahan of New York, and 
Henry B. Blackwell. In addition, Mr. John Romasz- 
kiewicz made an address in Polish, Mr. Philip Davis 
in Yiddish, and Dr. Shitlovsky of Berne in German. 

"Madame Breshkovsky can speak English, but not 
fluently enough to make a set address ; so she generally 

111 



112 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

speaks in French. This evening, however, as there 
were many Russians present, she spoke in Russian, 
and Dr. Cahan acted as interpreter. 

"When the 'Grand Old Lady' got up to speak, the 
great audience rose en masse. Handkerchiefs waved, 
hats were flung up into the air, words of affection in 
five languages were rained upon her from all parts of 
the hall, and the applause was deafening. 

"Madame Breshkovsky had written out in advance 
what she meant to say. It was as follows : 

MADAME BRESHKOVSKY's SPEECH 

"We are a long way from Russia, and it may seem 
strange to you to hear anyone speak with warmth of 
a country and of questions that are so far away, 
beyond the mountains and the sea. You who are 
sitting quietly in a beautiful, well-lighted hall in Boston, 
what have you to do with the gloomy prisons in Russia, 
and with the deadly struggle which has been going 
on for so many years between the vanguard of the 
Russian people and the autocratic Russian govern- 
ment? It is they over yonder who are waging the 
conflict, it is they who are suffering and dying to give 
posterity a better future. It is there that the martyrs 
are groaning, that the tears of their families are fall- 
ing, and that the champions of freedom are being 
wounded and mutilated. 

" You will be asked what their fate is to you ? Many 
years ago, as I sat in prison surrounded by a gloomy 
silence, the wicket in my cell door opened, and my 
eyes fell on an envelope which brought me a greeting 
from afar, a good wish from a group of sympathizers 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 113 

in Switzerland. Then I was happy. My strength 
was revived by the consciousness that outside the 
prison walls there were friendly hearts that under- 
stood and sympathized, and longed to help me. The 
prison walls opened before me, and my mind soared 
fearlessly to meet new dangers and sufferings. Friends, 
all Russia is an immense prison to every Russian of 
progressive ideas. It is worth everything to the men 
and women who are working for freedom in Russia 
to know that free and civilized nations sympathize 
with them and wish them success. 

"The party of progress in Russia is the more inter- 
ested in having friends in all other countries, because 
it sees that the time of deliverance for the Russian 
people is coming nearer and nearer. All classes of 
the population are alike discontented with autocracy, 
all are longing to be freed from the yoke of despotism, 
and perhaps the happy day of our country's deliver- 
ance is not far away. 

"But every political party that is in earnest, as 
ours is, wishes to secure in advance a friendly atmos- 
phere, and to win auxiliaries that may help in case of 
need. Everybody knows that the struggle carried on 
by the progressive elements against Russian autocracy 
is not only difficult, but dangerous, and not only 
dangerous, but also very expensive. The autocracy 
has at its disposal armies of gendarmes, of police, and 
of spies ; it spends millions to hunt down and anni- 
hilate all those in Russia who differ with its views. 
On the other side are only groups of people without 
money, and persecuted even to death. We have 
scarcely time to get together and organize when we 
are attacked, arrested, imprisoned, and exiled. In 



114 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

Russia the government every year deprives the nation 
of the services of 10,000 men and women, the best, 
most capable, and most energetic in Russia, by impris- 
oning some, exiling others, and putting still others 
under police surveillance, which makes it impossible 
for them to work for their country. 

"Nevertheless, what do we see? We see the pro- 
gressive movement in Russia growing day by day, 
and all classes taking a widespread and intelligent part 
in it. The system of despotic monarchy has so dis- 
gusted all the people, and the miseries resulting from 
it have brought them so near the verge of ruin, that 
no one, except a few unprincipled men immediately 
around the throne, is willing to have the present regime 
continue. And that is why all the government's 
efforts to crush out everything that tends to emanci- 
pation come to nothing, and cannot check the victo- 
rious march of progressive ideas, which are permeat- 
ing even the deep mass of the Russian peasantry. 
This is also why I appeal to you, friends, to help a 
cause which not only is worthy of every aid, but has 
a brilliant and not remote future. 

"It is not weakness or lack of success that leads us 
to come to you; it is the enlargement of our work, 
and its success, almost beyond our expectations, that 
obliges us to appeal to the sympathy of free peoples, 
for their help in this hour of a decisive struggle, where 
the victory will bring happiness to the whole of our 
suffering country. We must take care not to leave 
ourselves without support, at a time when a decided 
gesture, a severe word addressed to our government 
by the free government of a free country, might turn 
the scale in the right direction — that of the freedom 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 115 

and happiness of our people. You know that every 
struggle is carried on by means of two kinds of forces, 
moral and material ; and we ask you for help of both 
kinds. 

"But, you may ask, where are the signs of this 
renaissance of the Russian people .f* What assurance 
have you that these people, mainly millions of peas- 
ants, dull, ignorant, and brutalized, can make a 
rational use of their freedom after they get it ? 

"The Russian government itself has answered the 
first question. By its present conduct, at once timid 
and hypocritical, it has proved both its own weakness 
and its fear of the progressive movement, which it 
hopes to turn aside by promises and postponements. 
By allowing the calling together of the zemstvos, the 
Russian government has frankly confessed that it 
has not strength or wit enough to deal with all the 
circumstances and events that in these days make up 
the life of the people. The shocks that absolutism 
is receiving on all sides have made it stagger so often 
that it has lost the habit of standing firm on its feet. 
This very war with Japan — this murder, this car- 
nage, this suicide of the Russian people — was it not 
the act of a madman, who, seeing an abyss opening 
under his feet, tries to drag everything above down 
into it ? Think of all the sorrows, atrocities, and losses 
resulting from this war — a war that nobody needed, 
and that is hated and despised by the people, and then 
say if a government worthy of respect, and convinced 
of its own righteousness and strength, could have 
rushed into it, and thus revealed to the world all its 
corruption, ignorance, and contempt for its people's 
happiness ? 



116 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

"We see Russia not only unhappy, rent by all 
possible evils, but also humiliated, disgraced, degraded, 
as she has never been since the terrible days of the 
Tartar domination. The best of her sons are being 
killed; the rest of her population is being completely 
ruined, and the country burdened with debt for cen- 
turies to come, the odious game of the present govern- 
ment thus enslaving future generations. 

"After this, can you ask whether the Russian people 
could manage their own affairs better than they are 
managed by the Czar and his ministers? More than 
once the Russian people, as a whole, have shown 
themselves capable of deciding their own destiny and 
of making their own history, thanks to their common 
sense and courage. By searching the past, you will 
find that it was these same despised peasants who, 
with their own hands and on their own initiative, en- 
larged their country by territories such as Siberia, 
as all the northern part of European Russia, and all 
the lands that surround the Black and Caspian Seas. 
It was the peasants who saved the interests of their 
fatherland in 1613, when our great country was rent 
between aspirants to the Muscovite throne. They 
showed themselves dignified and wise at the time of 
their emancipation, forty years ago, waiting patiently 
for the justice of the Czar to give them a share of the 
'holy soil', which is the Russian peasant's only wealth, 
his only means of subsistence. The people were much 
more intelligent than the Czar. It was impossible 
for him to understand, as they did, — they who work, 
and by their work feed the whole Russian empire, — 
that unless they were given land they would be left 
without their only means of getting a living, while 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 117 

those who did nothing would receive the land, which 
they would not know what to do with. 

"Afterwards, when the different districts obtained 
the right to have their zemstvos, was it not the peas- 
ants who showed by their example how the money and 
other resources that come from the work of the people 
ought to be expended? To this day, the two peasant 
provinces of Viatka and Perm, where there are no 
nobles, have the best schools, the best roads, the largest 
number of doctors, of libraries and of technical schools 
of all kinds, and even a newspaper published by the 
zemstvos on purpose for the peasants, a thing found 
nowhere else in Europe. 

"It is now forty years since the emancipation of 
the serfs, thirty years since we workers among the 
people first began to teach them. And now what a 
difference ! The peasants have improved and devel- 
oped till they are hardly recognizable. Experience 
has opened the eyes of our suffering country. She 
no longer believes in her Czar; she knows what he is 
worth; and, conscious of her own strength and her 
ability to act for her own welfare, she is asking for 
freedom. She is no longer willing to submit blindly 
to the will of a government that is ignorant and hos- 
tile to the nation's real interests. These same peas- 
ants, who formerly could not read, or understand the 
state of things, now read and understand perfectly 
the books and pamphlets that we distribute among 
them by hundreds of thousands, to show them the best 
way to get rid of the yoke which is crushing them, 
body and soul. And now that the happy time has 
come when the people read and listen to us, when they 
welcome our literature, our advice, and our presence. 



118 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

we find ourselves still confronted by Russia's evil 
genius, the autocratic government which persecutes 
everything true, which destroys everything great. 
But this time we are the stronger. The people are 
on our side, and we must serve them, at whatever 
cost. And therefore, feeling that the time of deliver- 
ance is near, we appeal to all the friends of freedom, 
saying, 'Please understand us, and please help us!' 

"We say it with the more confidence because we 
know that the abolition of Russian despotism is a 
question which closely concerns other nations, both in 
Europe and in America. We know, as you also know, 
what the fate is of the Armenians, the Poles, the Finns, 
the Jews, under the rule of Russian absolutism, and 
you know whether their fate is a pleasant one. You 
know, too, that the Sultan, and all other monarchs 
inclined to despotism, derive their strength and safety 
from the power of the Czars, who always try to main- 
tain the authority of crowned heads. In the name of 
justice and of the general good, I entreat you, friends, 
to help us as you can and as much as you can, so that 
we may see our immense and beautiful country, with 
its kind-hearted and gifted people, free and civilized 
as soon as possible." 

"A great ovation followed the speech, and a collec- 
tion was taken. 

"The arrangements for the meeting had been made 
by Meyer Bloomfield. He was ably seconded by about 
a score of the best young men among the settlement 
workers, who acted as ushers. Mr. Foulke said that 
he had attended many political gatherings, but never 
one so enthusiastic. 

"Letters wishing success to the meeting were re- 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 119 

ceived from Governor Bates of Massachusetts and 
from several labor organizations. 

"At the close, Madame Breslikovsky received an- 
other ovation. Hundreds pressed up to the front of 
the platform, reached up their hands to clasp hers, and 
in some cases lifted up their children to greet her. 
Even those of us who had been familiar with Faneuil 
Hall meetings for many years had never seen such a 
sight." 

Madame Breshkovsky addressed various other meet- 
ings in and around Boston, and spoke at Wellesley 
College. 

She was welcomed by her own countrypeople with 
even greater enthusiasm. In Philadelphia, according 
to the Philadelphia North American^ two thousand 
Russian men and women made her the object of "a 
demonstration almost unprecedented in America." 
At the close of her address in New Pennsylvania Hall, 
"a mighty cheer went up"; the people rose en masse, 
hats were waved, and the cheering lasted for five 
minutes. Then the audience surged toward the 
platform, took the aged martyr for liberty in their 
arms, and for nearly an hour carried her around the 
hall on their shoulders in triumph, shouting and sing- 
ing "Du Biunshka" till they could shout and sing 
no more. Every one in the crowd tried to reach 
Madame Breshkovsky, and all who succeeded em- 
braced her. Her clothing was nearly torn off, and the 
friends who had got up the meeting feared that the 
zeal of her admirers might cost her her life. These 
friends waited till she was borne near the platform, 
and then made a sudden rush and took her away from 
the crowd. Exhausted, but still enthusiastic, she sat 



120 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

in a chair behind the wings, and begged to be allowed 
to go back to her countrymen. Again and again the 
crowd tried to storm the platform and reach her, and it 
was with difficulty they were made to understand that 
for her own sake the demonstration ought to cease. 

In New York City she had had an enthusiastic 
reception in Cooper Union, attended by thousands. 
A New York branch of the Friends of Russian Free- 
dom was organized, with the Reverend Minot J. 
Savage as president. Professor Robert Ersldne Ely as 
secretary, and a long list of distinguished vice presi- 
dents. 

In January, 1905, she went on to Chicago, where 
again she had a great reception. Later she returned 
to Boston for a longer visit. 

The impression that she made in private was even 
deeper than that left by her public speeches. Kel- 
logg Durland wrote in the Boston Transcript: 

"To look upon the face of this silver-haired apostle 
is like receiving a benediction. Her outward and 
inward calm are superb. Her hands are beautiful in 
their delicacy and refinement, despite the years in 
Siberia. Her voice is low and sweet, her smile win- 
ning and childlike. Only her eyes betray the suffer- 
ings of the years. In repose her face is strong like 
iron. The shadows of her eyes speak of deepest pathos. 
We sat together in a little room in lower New York 
one morning, Madame Breshkovsky, Abe. Cahan, 
the Russian novelist and editor of the Forward, Katz, 
I. K. Friedman, and myself. Madame Breshkovsky 
was telling us her wonderful story. She spoke quietly, 
yet the things she told of were so terrible they fairly 
made our heartstrings quiver. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 121 

"Suddenly there came a sharp knock at the door, 
and a dark-eyed man of middle age stepped over the 
threshold. His black eyes glistened like jewels as he 
started toward Madame Breshkovsky. He spoke a 
few words in Russian, recalling an incident in both 
their lives, and with an exclamation of joy she stood 
up and threw her arms about him, kissing him first 
on one cheek, then on the other. They had last met 
as exiles in one of the prisons of Siberia." 

IMrs. L. A. Coonley Ward wrote in the Chicago 
Commons of March, 1905 : 

"Not many days ago I stepped into a nursery. 
Four little children from two to nine years old sat 
watching a large, handsome, plainly-dressed woman 
with short gray hair combed back and waving over 
a massive head. Her brilliant eyes were full of merri- 
ment as she told the story of a wonderful doll, dramat- 
ically illustrating its accomplishments, even to its 
dancing. The Httle quartette had lost the sense of 
everything external except the charming story-teller 
and her fascinating tale. At its close she seated her- 
self in a low chair in the center of the group, talking 
constantly, most entertainingly, while she cut and 
folded paper into bewitching shapes — cocks, boats, 
baskets, dolls, following in quick succession. In a 
few minutes the shy little three-year-old was on her 
lap, and the conquest of the children was complete. 

"The story-teller was Madame Catherine Bresh- 
kovsky, the Russian exile. 

"How has she come through her terrible experi- 
ence with this child-heart fresh within her? Her 
companions in prison and exile are dead, or live with 
broken health. Many were made insane by hard- 



122 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

ships and loneliness. It was not her strong physique 
alone that saved her ; it was this child-heart, compan- 
ioned with a vivid imagination, a keen sense of humor, 
and a noble faith in the future. 

"'How is it, dear Madame, that after all these 
cruel years you are without a touch of bitterness.'^' 

"'Ah, it is because I believe in evolution. I am 
sure they act according to their light, as I act accord- 
ing to mine.' 

" ' You are sustained by a great hope ? ' 

"'By great ho'pes,'' she answered, while into her 
wonderful eyes there entered depths born of the world's 
ages of pain. 

"Madame Breshkovsky is an altogether delightful 
companion. She is unselfish, interested in others, 
fond of books, music, and pictures, so that she becomes 
at once a part of the home life. She is impressive in 
her simplicity, hopeful, buoyant, sometimes even 
gay, a very human woman, and a winner of admiration 
and of love from every one who comes in contact with 
her rare, beautiful personality. 

"Sitting in the twilight by the fire, with her shin- 
ing eyes, her noble face, her melodious voice, she seems 
a splendid sibyl bringing to our modern materialism 
the simplicity, the poetry, the devotion of the mighty 
past, with its primitive virtues and its prophetic 
inspiration." 

Madame Breshkovsky soon grew sufficiently accus- 
tomed to speaking English to make addresses in that 
language, with only mistakes enough to add piquancy 
to her talk. 



CHAPTER X 

Madame Breshkovsky found an especially sym- 
pathetic welcome in the social settlements. She 
stayed for some time at the Nurses' Settlement at 
265 Henry Street, New York, at Denison House in 
Boston, and at Hull House in Chicago, and at each 
she left behind her a circle of strong friends. Miss 
Helena S. Dudley, who was then at the head of Deni- 
son House, said that no six years of her life had been 
worth so much to her as the six weeks that Madame 
Breshkovsky spent under her roof. Miss Lillian D. 
Wald, Jane Addams, Miss Ellen Starr, Professor 
Robert Erskine Ely, Arthur Bullard, and Kellogg 
Durland were among those who became warm and 
lasting friends. 

She met Mrs. Julia Ward Howe, and the two noble 
old ladies took to each other at once. She called 
Mrs. Howe ^'une vraie citoyenne." Mrs. Howe in- 
vited Madame Breshkovsky to her home to lunch, 
and by way of welcome, sat down to the piano and 
struck up the Russian National Anthem. Madame 
Breshkovsky put her hands to her ears, with a cry. 
She explained to her astonished hostess that that 
tune was always played in honor of the Czar, and 
that the revolutionists held it in horror. 

Emma Goldman did her utmost to help Madame 

123 



124 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

Breshkovsky, although their opinions were at opposite 
poles, Miss Goldman, as an anarchist, believing that 
there should be no government, while Madame Bresh- 
kovsky, as a Socialist, believed that the functions o£ 
government should be greatly extended, and should 
include the ownership and operation of the railroads, 
factories, and mines. 

Madame Breshkovsky conceived a very tender 
friendship for me. Perhaps this good fortune befell 
me in part because of my long-standing interest in 
the Russian question. My parents and I had tried 
to help Boris Gorow when he lectured in this country 
on the iniquities of the Russian Government somewhere 
about 1884. I had been a member of the first society 
of Anierican Friends of Russian Freedom, organized 
in ISftl,* after Stepniak's visit to this country. The 
society never had a president; but it was formed 
chiefly through Mrs. Howe's efforts, and often met 
at her house. For some years it did active work, 
largely through the endeavors of its devoted secretary 
and treasurer, Edmund Noble and Francis J. Garrison. 
The society led the movement against the proposed 
extradition treaty with Russia, and obtained from 
Governor Russell of Massachusetts the appointment 
of a relief committee during the great Russian famine. 
A monthly journal. Free Russia, was published for 
several years, with Mr. Noble as editor, and L. Golden- 
berg as manager.^ It was finally discontinued for 
lack of financial support, and the society's work was 
gradually taken over by sympathizers in New York. 

Some years after this organization had gone out of 
existence, the reading of Tolstoy's "Resurrection" 

1 See Appendix, 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 125 

impressed me afresh with the need that something 
should be done to better the terrible conditions de- 
scribed. The author speaks of a Russian official who 
wants to practise some piece of tyranny on the political 
prisoners, but refrains because he fears that the matter 
may get into the foreign newspapers. It is a maxim 
in war, "Always do the thing to which your adversary 
particularly objects." It occurred to me that it 
might be useful to spread news about the misdeeds of 
the Russian government through the American press. 
A new society of the American Friends of Russian 
Freedom was organized' Tor this purpose, with the 
Hon. William Dudley Foulke of Indiana as president. 
George Kennan gave his services in translating the 
Russian news, and I manifolded it and sent it out. 
This society was merely a news bureau, and after a 
while it too came to an end. But it was still in nominal 
existence at the time of Madame Breshkovsky's visit 
to America, and was able to give her some help. A 
much better and stronger society of Friends of Russian 
Freedom, with headquarters in New York, was organ- 
ized later. 

But the most helpful of all the friends whom Madame 
Breshkovsky made in this country was Mrs. Isabel C. 
Barrows, the wife of the Hon. Samuel J. Barrows, 
secretary of the New York Prison Association and 
National Prison Commissioner. After Mr. Barrows's 
death, Madame Breshkovsky, then in exile at Kirensk 
in Siberia, wrote the following account of her first 
meeting with these good friends : 

"It was toward the end of 1904. I was in New 
York, with no acquaintances, quite lost in that city 
which was wholly strange to me. I could hardly 



126 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

speak English, and had great difficulty in finding my 
way about that modern Babylon, that ant-hill of 
languages, nationalities, customs, and religions. 

"We Russians are inherently timid, inclined to dis- 
trust our own abilities, our own knowledge ; hence, 
when we find ourselves in a strange environment, we 
are filled with uncertainty, and our wish for a point 
d'appui, a person, a circle, a benevolent institution, 
increases because of the embarrassment felt by a 
person who is not sure of his ground. That was just 
my case when I arrived in New York. In spite of 
the large number of immigrants who came to meet 
me in the kindest and most affectionate way, I needed 
to make the acquaintance of the real Americans. I 
fancied that to impress a society accustomed to respect 
people in proportion to their wealth and outward ac- 
complishments, it would take much greater gifts 
than mine ; that it would be necessary to have a great 
reputation, and be able to carry one's self on the 
platform in a masterly manner and with full assurance. 

"Alas ! brought up in Russia, where every free word 
is forbidden, and having passed all my youth on my 
parents' estate, under a rather strict and serious re- 
gime, educated in the habit of keeping a close watch 
over myself, I was haunted by the thought of my own 
imperfections, the smallness of my knowledge, my 
total lack of talent. Although conscious of my inner 
power, and longing to act, and to spread my faith 
and my ideas, I felt bashful about appearing before 
an unknown public, and had no hope that I could do 
as well as I desired. 

"So imagine my embarrassment when my friends, 
the immigrants, proposed to introduce me to an Amer- 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 127 

ican family occupying an official position and enjoying 
a high reputation ! Nevertheless, as I had my own 
mission, which was dear to me, and which I wished 
with all my soul to serve, I made an effort over myself. 

"\^^len I rang tlie^ bell at Mr. Barrows's office at 
135 East 15th Street, great was my surprise to see two 
young women, modestly and simply dressed, writing 
and casting up accounts before long tables, evidently 
engaged in serious work, but not at all 'businesslike.' 
Their homelike dress, their quiet and tranquil air, 
without affectation or constraint, upset my ideas of 
the office of a man of business. It took me some time 
to realize that an American's office could be carried 
oil like a family, where not only did the regular fre- 
quenters of the place feel as if they were at home, 
but where all comers were looked upon as possible 
friends. 

"I did not yet feel sure, however, of being welcome 
in this inner sanctum, where a group of associates 
were working together for their common aim. Per- 
haps they would not like to be disturbed. But I had 
only to pass through a library and enter another little 
office to see that the two ladies who were writing 
there were not displeased by my coming. The elder, 
w^ho was Mrs. Barrows herself, rose to meet me with- 
out the least sign of surprise or impatience. It was as 
if she had expected me, or as if she were so accustomed 
to meet all comers, at all hours, that no apparition 
could take her unprepared. Nor did the young lady 
show any surprise or curiosity upon seeing a person so 
awkward as I, arrayed more like an Indian than a 
European. All this convinced me of the high humanity 
of the master of the office, and I thanked God in my 



128 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

soul for having prepared for me a reception so simple 
and friendly. My relations with Mrs. Barrows, 
thanks to her benevolence and wisdom, were of in- 
valuable assistance to me. It was she who translated 
my writings from French into English; it was she 
who taught me to pronounce the sounds in the English 
language that are hardest for a foreigner; it was she 
who guided me in regard to my later visits and ac- 
quaintances; and it was she who introduced me on 
the platform, at the first meeting in which I took 
part. In a word, before I had the honor of being 
presented to other distinguished Americans, interested 
in the cause that had brought me to the United States, 
it was from Isabel C. Barrows that I received as it 
were my baptism at my ofiicial entrance into American 
society. It was at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Barrows 
that I met their daughter Mabel, now Mrs. Mussey. 
It was there that I learned to know Arthur Bullard, 
whose friendship will be mine forever. It was there 
that I grew better acquainted with Alice Stone Black- 
well, whose friendship, incomparable for its constancy 
and tenderness, has been a sweet sunbeam to me 
during the long days of an interminable exile. 

"When I saw Mr. Barrows, I was struck at once 
by his tall, handsome figure, straight and graceful in 
spite of his age; his serious face, wearing the stamp 
of habitual benevolence, a benevolence inseparable 
from his exquisite nature. He made an extraordinary 
impression on me as one who would bring peace and 
love into the hearts of those who knew him well. 

"I admired his beautiful face without ever daring 
to say how much good his gentle look did me. And 
my timidity lasted throughout the four months during 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 129 

which I had the pleasure of visiting the Barrows 
family. Sitting around a large table, spread with 
the frugal lunch prepared by the skilful hands of Mrs. 
Barrows herself in the next room, over a gas stove, we 
used to talk, each of the subject that interested him 
most; while Mr. Barrows, having finished before 
the rest, walked up and down the library, listening, 
stopping sometimes when any words attracted his 
special attention. It was only later that I learned 
that he valued what I said, and that the little he 
knew of me had made a deep impression on him. 
How much I regret now that I was not brave, simple, 
and frank enough to speak to a man the remembrance 
of whom has lived in my heart for seven years, whose 
image is still fresh in my mind, and whose portrait, 
in the little book 'A Moral Citadel', is a refreshment 
to me in the hours when I long to find myself in the 
company of the highest minds ! " 

Mrs. Barrows, through her large acquaintance, was 
able to furnish Madame Breshkovsky with many 
valuable introductions, and she helped to make her 
work widely known through articles in the press. 
She and I also acted as interpreters, on various oc- 
casions when she spoke in French. 

Madame Breshkovsky not only gave her American 
friends a great deal of fresh and first-hand knowledge 
about conditions in Russia, and especially about the 
peasants, but she enkindled courage and idealism 
wherever she went. She made the same deep impres- 
sion upon the educated and the ignorant, the rich and 
the poor. 

She was convinced that revolution in Russia was 
actually at the door. *'Our workers are already 



130 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

400,000 strong," she said. "Day and night they 
work. In place of sleep, and warmth, and food, the 
dream of freedom !" 

She resisted all persuasions to stay in this country 
and carry on her work from a place of safety. Kellogg 
Durland attended a small gathering of her friends 
in New York City, on the East Side, a few days before 
she went back. He described the scene in the Boston 
Transcript of March 29, 1905. After going up many 
flights of stairs, he found the small rooms crowded to 
the doors. 

"'Baboushka is in the inner room alone. You may 
go in,' a messenger told me. As I pushed to the door, 
I saw Ernest Crosby, John Coryell, Katz, and a number 
of the New York radical ring, Tolstoy ans. Socialists, 
anarchists, idealists, and dreamers of every shade. 
She talked to me of America and the Americans she 
had met ; of her plans for the future, her bright hopes, 
and calm outlook upon her storm-swept country. 

"'I see America a great plain,' she said, 'and all the 
people running about as little children — little children 
without a professor. You have nowhere a great 
leader. Everybody is bright and intelligent, but no 
big brain. In America there is too much specialism — 
too many people expert in one line, not enough who 
know many things. Your writers are too narrow. 
Write books that millions of people will read, but 
write about important things. If I lived in America, 
I would go from city to city and village to village, 
teaching and preaching. And I would write. The 
American people like poetry, but they also ask logic 
and consistency. When you write, be always logical, 
never contradict yourself, and be poetic in expression. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSMN REVOLUTION 131 

Then many people will read, and your influence will 
be great. That is what I say to all young men in 
America. 

'"Yes, America has been very good to me. But I 
cannot stay longer. Some day I shall come back — 
perhaps in five years, when Russia is free.' 

"The last days in America were full and memorable 
— the farewell meetings, the last articles to write, the 
final instructions to the bodies in this part of the world 
that are working for the cause in Russia. No one 
knew when she was to sail. The exact date was kept 
from all save her most intimate friends. There were 
but four at the steamer — Miss Blackwell, Mrs. 
Barrows, Professor Ely, and myself." 

Two friends sailed with her. One had been for 
years a political exile, had escaped from Siberia, and 
reached America with health shattered for life. Physi- 
cally a wreck, but still strong of heart, he was going 
back to renew the fight. The other was a young 
woman, the daughter of a well-known Russian family, 
who had spent two years in America, earning her own 
living and fitting herself to be a teacher among the 
Russian peasants. She was going back, with the full 
knowledge that three months was the average length 
of time that the propagandists were able to work 
before being caught and sent to prison or exile. 

"Are you willing to sacrifice your freedom for 
twenty years, perhaps forever, for three months of 
activity.?" she was asked. 

"Certainly," she answered quietly. "It is only by 
many persons doing this that our poor people will 
ever learn, and be free. What else can we do ? Many 
go to Siberia; why not I.^^" 



132 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

As the three stood together on the deck, Madame 
Breshkovsky in the centre with her leonine head, and 
the other two on either hand, they seemed to Durland 
a type of the past, the present, and the future of the 
revolution. 

Madame Breshkovsky took back with her about 
$10,000 for the cause, most of it contributed by the 
very poor Russians living in the large cities ; and 
through her influence Arthur Bullard and a number 
of other young Americans went over to Russia and 
took part in the actual fighting. 



CHAPTER XI 

Madame Breshkovsky's expectation of a revolution 
in Russia was almost fulfilled in 1905. The great 
general strikes throughout the country, and the unan- 
imous demand for a change in the old regime, terri- 
fied the Czar into granting a Douma and promising 
freedom of speech and of the press, with other urgently 
needed reforms. It is now a matter of history how all 
those promises were broken. The Czar had at first 
granted suffrage to the men of Russia on a fairly liberal 
basis. The first Douma chosen was too radical, and 
he narrowed the suffrage. The second Douma was 
still too radical, and he narrowed the suffrage again. 
Even after the electorate had been so changed as to 
make the Douma representative only of the rich, it 
was allowed no real power. Its decisions were con- 
stantly overridden by the Council of the Empire. 
The autocracy was preserved intact. Freedom of 
speech and of the press were soon taken away ; the 
prisons were again crowded with the country's best 
men and women ; and the procession of political exiles 
to Siberia continued, with ever increasing numbers. 
Naturally, the revolutionists resumed their work. 

Through the treachery of Azeff, Madame Bresh- 
kovsky and that other veteran in the cause of Russian 
freedom. Doctor Nicholas Tchaykovsky, were arrested 

133 



134 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

in 1908. They were kept for a long time in the fortress 
of St. Peter and St. Paul, without trial. Doctor Tchay- 
kovsky was finally released on bail, through the efforts 
of his friends, among whom Mr. and Mrs. Barrows and 
the editors of the Outlook were especially active. But 
Madame Breshkovsky was still held in the fortress, 
and word came secretly that she was failing and likely 
to die. Mr. and Mrs. Barrows were to sail for Europe 
in the spring of 1909, to meet the International Prison 
Commission in Paris. It was suggested that Mrs. 
Barrows should go on in advance, and try to get Ma- 
darne Breshkovsky admitted to bail. Mr. Barrows 
said: "If you can help Baboushka, go. I would lay 
down my own life for her, and think it well spent." 

Mrs. Barrows sailed in March. She had barely 
arrived in Petrograd when she received a cablegram 
announcing her husband's dangerous illness. She 
hurried home, but did not arrive in time to see him in 
life. A month later, she started again for Russia, 
provided with all sorts of letters from influential 
Americans to dignitaries on the other side. 

Although she almost went on her knees to the Premier, 
Stolypin, she could not get leave to see Madame 
Breshkovsky. It was not until two years later that 
Baboushka even learned that this faithful friend had 
twice visited Petrograd in her behalf. 

Mrs. Barrows found that a request for a prisoner's 
release on bail must be made by a blood relation. 
Madame Breshkovsky's son would have been the ob- 
vious person to make it. He had become a successful 
novelist; but he was still without any sympathy for 
revolutionary ideas. He was mortified that his mother 
should be in prison as a revolutionist, and he was not 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 135 

willing to sign the application. Mrs. Barrows thought 
of appealing to an aged sister of Madame Breshkovsky's, 
who was still h^'ing ; but a Russian prince, a friend of 
Tchaykovsky's, offered to use his influence with the 
son. He invited him to dinner, told him of the earnest 
efforts that Mrs. Barrows was making, and said to him 
in substance: "To-day your mother is old; and here 
is another old lady who has twice crossed the ocean for 
her sake; yet you, her own son, will not even lift a 
hand to help her." The son's feelings were touched ; 
perhaps he was a little ashamed. At any rate, he 
signed the request for bail ; but it was refused. 

He went to see his mother in prison. She wrote him 
the following letters while in the fortress. 

She was allowed to write on no personal affairs save 
her health ; to discuss no politics ; to make no reference 
to the government ; to speak of no recent publications, 
etc., etc. 

"January 22, 1909. 

"My dear N : I was very much pleased to see you, 
and I thank you for coming. I wish that I could always 
see you looking so well. I appreciate the need of unity 
between soul and body when one has singleness of 
purpose, and I know very well what a tremendously 
deep break is made in one's life even by a single crisis. 
It may alter a man's life completely. Preserve your- 
self, then, from every base and unwholesome thing. 
Let pure motives only enter into all your actions. Good 
motives beautify the human being, and convey to the 
face a beautiful expression. I wish you success, my 
dear child, in everything that leads to your perfection. 
Kiss the others for me, and tell them my joy in seeing 
you. 



136 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

"I imagine myself sitting with you in your room while 
you are relating to me what you have seen, what you 
have heard, what you have in your mind to do. At first 
I listen to you patiently, and then I begin to argue. Do 
you know, I never could read or listen to descriptions 
of anything adverse to my soul, especially the horrid 
things which base people do to each other, even if the 
horrid things do not have fatal results. I have been 
reading Dickens for the first time, and I am obliged 
to skip whole pages. Wliile reading I often say to 
myself, 'Oh, this happened a thousand years ago, and 
there is nothing of the kind now,' but still I cannot read 
the descriptions of horrors. I am afraid that in the 
books you write I shall have to skip some pages too, 
but I cannot help it. I will try to understand the plot 
without reading the horrors. 

" Do you know what perfectly delighted me ? ' Ivan- 
hoe.' That is a novel of novels ! If all historical novels 
were written in that way, they would be marvels. 
Still, I skipped nearly four chapters concerning the 
violence in the land. But it is a wonderful book. I 
think it would pay very well to publish a good transla- 
tion, with illustrations. It is capital reading for 
youth, and delightful for grown-ups. Just imagine, I 
was always afraid of Walter Scott, because your grand- 
mother inspired me with mistrust of him. 

"Well, I wish you good health, my dear. Protect 
yourself from influenza, which attacked me as the 
autumn fell. I embrace you and bless you." 

"March 2, 1909. 
"My dear N: Soon it will be two months since I 
saw you, and still I have no books from you. Probably 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 137 

the time will soon come for your going away, and we 
shall not see each other any more. I constantly recall 
our interview, and always regret that I could not see 
you clearly, but I remember every word of our con- 
versation. W^at you said of the Lake of Geneva often 
comes to my memory — that its beauty has been worn 
out by many commonplace pictures. But only think, 
my dear child, how everything that is beautiful in 
nature is 'tainted' in that way. Shall we blame the 
sky, the stars, the sea, the mountains, because they 
have been sung by so many poets and drawn by so 
many pencils, for so many ages ? Shall we therefore 
cease to love them ? Shall we think that it is not be- 
coming for us to look on the Milo goddess with admira- 
tion, simply because there are so many photographs of 
her on every street corner .^^ No, my friend, this is a 
prejudice, and it often prevents us from taking pleasure 
in things which deserve to be enjoyed. If it were 
true, there would be nothing left on the globe for a 
refined taste, because the crowd has looked upon all 
these things, on all sides and in all sorts of places. The 
sense of beauty lies in ourselves, and when it is strongly 
developed — that is, when we are capable of noticing 
and appreciating the very slightest feature of beauty — 
then everything that excites admiration in the crowd 
seems to us still more beautiful and more wonderful. 

"It is another thing to prefer one kind of beauty to 
another. For instance, however picturesque and orig- 
inal Spaniards are, I never should prefer them to the 
French, because the creative spirit of the hidalgos and 
of the French people stands as one to a hundred in ability 
to create in the spheres of science and of art. And the 
Frenchman shares the fruits of his researches so willingly 



138 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

with others that his homeland attracts to itself the 
hearts and the affections of all other people. Believe 
me, my dear, Paris is so thickly populated with for- 
eigners, not because life there is so gay, but chiefly 
because one can live there so freely and so usefully. 
Every one feels himself at home, and he has the right 
to everything that has been accumulated by ages of 
labor, of genius, of talent. 

"I should like it very much if you would take 
Madame N. to the Lake of Geneva and go with her to 
the small village of C, near the Castle of Chillon, with 
the white mountains in the distance looking into the 
blue water at your feet — those white mountains 
whose summits melt into the transparent air. Oh, 
that mountain air, so full of health ! When I saw this 
picture for the first time, I held my breath. 

"Au revoir, my dear child. Come soon again. You 
can get permission for two or three interviews. I 
embrace you and kiss your hair." 

"April 2. 

"My dear Friend : I should very much like to know 
how you are. When I received your letter, I was sur- 
prised at your change of handwriting, but from the 
first word I understood what had happened. Such a 
healthy, vigorous man to look at to be ill in bed ! One 
thing consoled me, that there is somebody who writes 
for you : it means that you are not quite alone. 

"I was waiting to see you arrive, but you did not 
appear, and I lost hope. At last they said, *Come, * 
and I went to meet you. As I was passing the clock 
I saw that it was a quarter before twelve, and I men- 
tally reproached you for coming so late, and I walked 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 139 

briskly in order to look upon you sooner. But you 
looked ill. There is nothing more dangerous than to 
take cold with influenza. My dear, you ought not to 
trifle with your health. It is a great blessing, and its 
absence spoils life. Give my thanks to the one who 
writes for you, and be sure that I did not forget you 
those fifteen days while you lay ill. 

"I intend in our next interview to speak less and 
listen more. You know that I know nothing about 
your life. I therefore ask you to prepare beforehand 
a concise, and as full as possible, story of your life, of 
your quarters, whether you live alone or with some one, 
what your surroundings are, how your time is spent, 
what you are writing now, what interests you very 
much, what your plans are. I am prepared to keep 
silent for the twenty minutes. 

"Now I wish to tell you, as a lover of art, that it is 
quite worth while to see the picture gallery of Helsing- 
fors. The Finns have skill, and their painting is original 
in execution as well as in subject. Folk-lore, the life 
of the people, and their traditions supply rich material 
for the artists. It is a country worthy of study. 

"If you wish to amuse me, my dear, find me a book 
of travels describing different countries and epochs, 
with illustrations. It would be better if it were a work 
unknown to me, but anything that has appeared within 
ten or fifteen years will do, so long as it is well v/ritten 
and has plenty of pictures ; but it must be without 
intrigues and cruelties. 

"What Englishmen are writing now.f^ "What are 
they giving the public ? You make me laugh with the 
question whether I 'follow the news' ! My dear, I am 
entirely in the position of those fabulous creatures 



140 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

that have been stolen away and are kept living in such 
places that even the ravens and the wolves cannot peep 
in. Besides my four walls I see nothing, and hear noth- 
ing besides the ringing of church bells. My past was 
hedged in with all sorts of limitations, but such limita- 
tions as these I never experienced before. It is well 
that this happened towards my old age, when a large 
store of impressions and observations has been laid 
away in my memory. My whole past life appears before 
me as a tremendous school in which I pass from class 
to class. How many classes are still left, God only 
knows ! Life is a great teacher for all who wish to 
learn, and he is fortunate who gets on to the proper 
road to learning, otherwise one may go through life 
without learning anything or thinking anything. The 
majority live in that way, and, alas ! no one helps 
them. But he who knows how interesting and how 
blessed it is to know is bound to teach others. Ah, 
my dear, I begin to preach ! 

"I embrace you warmly. Give my greetings to all 
relatives and friends." 

"April 27. 

"My dear N: You told me that in about a fort- 
night you would come again. I should wait for you 
quite patiently if I were sure that you are well. The 
weather is wretched, and I know you ought not to 
expose yourself. 

"Have you ever read what Lessing has written about 
the Laocoon.'^ Having examined the history of this 
work of art, Lessing has devoted a great deal of time 
and study to it. The article is full of artistic taste and 
a deep understanding of the meaning of art. I read 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 141 

it not long ago, and it is deeply interesting in showing 
the relation between art and reality. It contains a 
good many sane thoughts, and every writer ought to 
read it carefully. It warns people about ascribing 
too much importance to the creative side of art, for, 
however correct it may be, it always remains an im- 
perfect imitation of natural beauty. The world of our 
conceptions is very meager, especially if we place human 
productions above the spirit which produced them. 

"Write me about N. I take an interest in every bit 
of domestic life — for instance, whom her chamber- 
maid married, and is she content, and do they live 
together happily ; and are they in the old house — 
the large one — or in the small one ? etc. From the 
small things in life you can judge of the large ones. I 
think I owe my knowledge of life to that principle, 
or that peculiarity of my mind, that the minor things 
do not escape me. I notice them side by side with 
types of character and modes of life. 

"You speak of M. and P. Their life is that of the 
provincial town. There is much good in it when it is 
enlightened by the spirit of knowledge and love. The 
smaller children may introduce both. My dear, try 
to appreciate all that is good and honest in people. 
Do not expect perfection from them, and do not try 
to fit everybody to one shape — even a healthful shape 
— so long as he is sincere. The human mind is grow- 
ing and forming itself, and it is still shaking off the 
remnants of the old dust and dirt ; and blessed are 
those who are already accustomed to hate that dirt 
in themselves and in others. It is the business of 
those who understand more to give their help to those 
who are climbing up out of the cerements of the past. 



142 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

You have a good heart, I know it. Answer me soon, 
and receive my blessing, and my warm and loving kiss. 

"Your Mother." 

"April 29. 

" My dear Kolinka : I have seen neither you nor the 
book. Although I am accustomed to wait patien'tly, 
still I wish to know as soon as possible what is going 
on with those who interest me. Your foster father 
and mother probably think I do not take any interest 
in small every-day affairs. It is not true. I know 
beforehand most of the events that happen in their 
lives. They are trifles, but these trifles make people 
joyful or sad. 

"Tell your foster mamma that I wish she would 
describe to me her household and her friends. And 
will you ask one of your friends to buy me a crocheted 
shawl, soft and elastic, that I can wrap round my head, 
something costing about three rubles. I have still an- 
other request. I have received twelve rubles from my 
friend Isabel Barrows. This attention of my trans- 
atlantic friends is very dear to me, and I sincerely 
thank them for it, but I have no way to express these 
thanks myself. Therefore I ask you, dear, to help me 
to tell Mrs. Barrows and all her family and all the friends 
that I heartily greet them. So sure am I of their great- 
heartedness that I should not have been surprised if some 
of them had been here ! Blessed are those who cultivate 
in themselves a love for their neighbors, and who respect 
before everything the dignity of the human being. 

"Yesterday I saw one blade of grass climbing from 
under a stone, on the sunny side. It presented a very 
sad contrast with the rest of the surroundings, the bare 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSL\N REVOLUTION 143 

trees and granite walls. A small patch of sky also 
looked upon me." 

"May 18, 1909. 
"My Dear : After each interview I write you, for I 
feel that in the course of it almost nothing has been said. 
The shawl was received, but it is so good that I cannot 
find a proper place for it, and I have finally decided 
to keep it in the paper package, for I cannot make up 
my mind to put it on. It was too elegant for me, but 
I thank you for it. . . . My greetings and respects 
to all my old' friends. I remember all, absolutely all, 
and love them, with all their children and grand- 
children. For three days now I have seen the sun as I 
take my exercise walk, and I warm myself in his rays." 

Influentially signed petitions from both England and 
America pleaded for leniency for the two aged revolu- 
tionists. When they were finally brought to trial. 
Doctor Tchaykovsky was acquitted. Madame Bresh- 
kovsky was again exiled to Siberia, this time for life. 

Doctor Tchaykovsky wrote to Mrs. Barrows : 
"We saw your old friend, shook her firm hands and 
kissed her cheeks. She is as firm and brave as ever, 
though her strong body begins to give way under the 
pressure of age and circumstances. She is not so erect 
as in former times. She was delighted to see Mrs. 
Tchaykovsky and my daughter, as well as the crowd 
of press correspondents, and kissed them all.^ She 

1 On kissing the correspondent of the London Daily News, she said, 
"I am so glad to speak English again and to see an Englishman !" In 
answer to the press correspondents' expressions of sympathy, she said: 
"Do not let this trouble you. I have been through it all before." 



144 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

wanted particularly to be remembered to Miss Alice 
Blackwell and yourself, and said, 'Tell them I love 
them — I love them all.' It was a matter of only two 
or three minutes between the verdict and the guards 
surrounding her. 

" The verdict was a surprise. Her case was partic- 
ularly hopeless, and she was ready to die in the course 
of the next two years if sentenced to imprisonment with 
hard labor. (She was sixty-eight, and the law permits 
hard labor only until the age of seventy.) 

"The trial lasted two days, and both those days I 
sat with her on the same bench, guards with drawn 
swords on both sides of us. 

"When my companion was asked what was her 
profession, she said, quietly but firmly, 'Propagandist 
of Socialist ideas.' In the course of the proceedings 
she made several remarks as to the facts, correcting 
the statements of the indictment and denying the 
lying assertions of the witnesses, but always admitting 
her participation in the work' of the party, with an air 
of quiet dignity and epic greatness. 

"Oh, how painful it was to see her gray head and 
erect form disappear among the crowd of guards in the 
corridors of the court ! This, the noblest and bravest 
woman I ever saw, thrown into the realm of the down- 
trodden, deprived of all human rights, and subjected 
to the petty caprice of any minor official or jailer ! I 
never saw her face so radiant and so proud as at the 
moment of listening to the verdict." 

Madame Breshkovsky was exiled to Kirensk, a 
little town on an island in the Lena River several 
thousand miles from Petrograd. 

Her friends were anxious to pay for more comfortable 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 145 

transportation for her than was provided for the exiles 
by the government, but she refused. She wanted 
no special privileges. Neither would she accept the 
money that her friends sent her, except on condition 
that she might share it with the rest. She was held 
in prison till the large party to be deported to Siberia 
was ready. It consisted of one hundred and fifty 
political offenders, and a hundred ordinary criminals. 
The journey took from spring until nearly autumn. 
First they went from Petrograd by train to Irkutsk. 
In the prison there she was ill for a fortnight with 
scurvy. One person only was allowed to see her and 
give her some of the money that had been raised for her, 
but nothing else was allowed to pass from his hands to 
hers, not even a lemon for the scurvy. Then the 
prisoners walked for two days, about twenty-five miles 
a day, to Alexandrovsk. Thence they started in 
carts for Kachug. The train was made up of eighty 
peasant carts, each holding three prisoners, besides the 
driver. The only extra comfort that Madame Bresh- 
kovsky would accept was additional hay in the bottom 
of the cart, and probably that was for the benefit of the 
sick woman who was traveling with her, and who died 
on the way. She herself stood the journey well. 
Another political exile saw her when the convoy stopped 
at Manzurka, and wrote in a letter dated September 
24, 1916: 

"When Granny passed here on August 14th she asked 
with evident sorrow about Joseph. 'Oh, what is going 
on in the prisons ! It is impossible either to remember 
or to speak of it.' Her face darkened, although a 
moment before she had been quite lively and bright. 
This thought of her unfortunate comrades pains her 



146 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

like a terrible sore at her heart. This was the only 
moment that she was gloomy while we saw her. All 
the rest of the time she was so exceedingly bright and 
kind that it v^as hard to believe she is nearly seventy 
years old and had just got out of prison after two and 
a half years of solitary confinement. A full figure with 
rosy face (I paid special attention — there were no 
wrinkles), sparkling eyes, and gray hair showing from 
under her hood and hanging upon her forehead. The 
train stopped beyond our village to change horses. It 
was quite a camp, of two hundred and fifty human 
beings surrounded by a chain of escort. 

"Among this crowd in gray coats under a gray sky 
and in the rain, her imposing figure struck every one 
immediately. It seemed to me that since 1905, when 
I had seen her last, she had grown younger. She was 
in good spirits. A crowd of young people accompanied 
her. This brightened and encouraged her, and colored 
the impression that she produced upon us. And this 
was after five days of an awfully hard journey, all the 
time under a pouring rain, in a shaky cart, with the 
nights passed in barracks or around camp fires. Many 
persons would have been quite prostrated, but our 
Granny looked as if she were at a students' party. 

"We were admitted inside the chain of the convoy, 
so that we were able to see her, as it were, amid her 
home surroundings. She was the centre of the party 
and the object of general attention, not only to her 
comrades, the political prisoners, but also to the 
ordinary criminals and to the soldiers of the convoy. 

" It is a curious fact that when we were traveling under 
escort to our destination in April, the convoy repeatedly 
asked us, ' When is Granny coming up ? Lord grant us 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 147 

to see her ! ' The prison in Irkutsk also was expecting 
her. The whole of imprisoned and exiled Siberia was 
waiting to see this 'miracle woman.' 

"Unfortunately the train stopped at Manzurka 
only a little while. There was hardly time to speak to 
her, so many wanted to see her and pay her their 
respects. She was joking almost all the time — 
kissed us all — was very glad to see our Volodia, now a 
grown-up youth — kissed him. We had hardly time 
to exchange greetings and remember common friends, 
yourselves amongst others, when the guards approached 
her and said, 'Please, Baboushka, get up on your cart,' 
and accompanied her to the telega. Pointing to another 
comrade, who was traveling in the same cart with her, 
she said, 'This is my friend. He has taken care of me 
all the way.' There was a third passenger in the cart, a 
feeble woman, so exhausted that she could hardly sit 
up, and lay down at once upon the hay. 'A Dissenter,' 
said Granny in an undertone. 'And this is our dear 
kind Starosta,' pointing to a tall, bright student, the 
deputy of the party. 

"She was wearing a sort of dressing-gown of superior 
shape and cloth, and a peculiar hood." 

From Kachug she made the journey partly by boat, 
partly by cart, and finally reached Kirensk on August 
27, 1910. 



CHAPTER XII 

On August 29 she wrote to her old friend, George 
Lazareff, a poHtical exile at Baugy sur Clarens in 
Switzerland, who for many years had watched over 
her welfare with great affection, and supplied her with 
money : 

"Dear Brother : The day before yesterday I arrived 
at my destination. I shall not dwell on the details of 
my journey, but shall mention my needs, since winter 
is approaching. 

"Neither the money nor my belongings which I 
left behind at the forwarding prison at St. Petersburg 
have been received as yet. While I remember the beau- 
tiful warm blanket that you brought to show me at 
the moment of my departure, I want you to let me 
have in addition two broad warm flannel skirts and 
two pairs of warm stockings, as well as a warm head 
shawl and a light waterproof, and also some yards of 
cotton sheeting, out of which I shall make all the cloth- 
ing I want. 

"Living is very dear here; lodgings especially are 
growing expensive owing to overcrowding, and they 
increase in price with every new party of exiles. I have 
engaged for myself half of a log house divided into 
three small rooms, bedroom, kitchen, and reception 
room ! with a separate entrance, for five rubles a month 
(about two dollars and a half), which includes firewood, 
water, and cleaning. 

148 



LITTLE^ GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 149 

" I have become used to eating little food, and can 
now live on very little, but I cannot eat rough food. 
My monstrous swelling is going down. It appears 
to be severe inflammation of the kidneys, and I was 
ordered baths, for which I hope to arrange with the 
assistance of kind friends. Had it not been for the 
care of comrades, I should have fared very badly on 
the journey. 

"Au revoir. I am waiting for money and books, 
novelties, serious ones. I embrace sister M. and all 
relations." 

The first letter from Madame Breshkovsky received 
in America was dated September 29-October 13, 
1910 (the Russian calendar is a fortnight behind that 
of the rest of the world. The date is given according 
to both calendars). 

"Dearest and best friend Alice Stone Blackwell ! 

" My good and lovely friend Helena Dudley ! 

"Five years and a half ago, when you asked me to 
remain with you in America, I answered that in five 
years, when everything was restored and put in order 
in Russia, I would come back. In my mind, restored 
and put in order meant Russia renewed and quietly 
working for her further progress. Certainly, when I 
said that, I did not expect that my wishes would be 
exactly fulfilled. I know that great historical cata- 
clysms do not take place without 'flux and reflux' 
of success and mischiefs, without many and many 
new efforts and battles before the end is attained. 
But, dearest friends, I did not foresee that the recom- 
mencement of my relations with you would follow from 
the place where I now am. Your old acquaintance 



150 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

is once more in Siberia, farther than ever from your 
charming homes. But what is distance if our imagi- 
nation can transport us wherever we choose, and rep- 
resent to us all the scenes and images that we remember 
and love ? So I feel, and instead of fixing my attention 
on all sorts of disagreeable conditions environing my 
everyday life, I prefer to visit all the places and people 
that made me contented and happy. In doing so I 
feel myself always among the best company in the 
v/orld. 

"I am not quite without good company in reality. 
There are a few people who have access to me, and who 
take care of my small needs. Two exiled families 
anticipate my material wants. A young exile takes 
me to walk around the little island whereon is situated 
the so-called town of Kirensk, surrounded by two 
rivers, the immense and cold Lena and the less majestic 
Kyrenga. The boy helps me to heat my stove and to 
make my few purchases. The two years and eight 
months in the fortress of St. Peter and St. Paul having 
impaired my health, the young man is of great use to 
me, for my gait is not yet sure enough, and it will 
take some time before my strength and activity come 
back enough to let me exercise my feet without help. 
The winter is severe. The cold mounts to over 56 
Reaumur ^ and perhaps during two or three months 
I shall not be able to go out. Nevertheless I hope to 
regain my health, and to live to see you again. Why 
not? My own experience has proved to me how 
greatly circumstances change. Happen what may, 

1 The name of the thermometer used in Russia instead of Fahrenheit. 
They speak of it as going up to zero instead of down. Zero is the freezing 
point. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 151 

I shall always believe in the coming of progress, mental 
as well as moral, and in the capacity of my 'country 
and my dear people to go forward. 

"During my imprisonment I wrote a great deal, 
setting forth my opinions on various questions of 
social life; concerning the education of children and 
young people ; on the destiny and vocation of women ; 
some psychological questions ; on the arts and on cul- 
ture in general. In a word, I explained at length my 
thoughts and the result of my experience gathered 
during my whole life. There was no allusion to pol- 
itics, nothing that could arouse prejudice on the part 
of the government, and yet all these writings of mine, 
more than six hundred sheets, have been taken from 
me, and my request to have my own work given back 
to me has had no result. I am sorry, for in it there 
are counsels and opinions worthy of being listened to, 
especially by the young people, who among us are 
always eager to learn the opinion of their elders. 

*'I am not sure that you will receive this letter. 
It is quite possible that I may be deprived of the joy 
of corresponding with you. A watch is kept upon all 
my doings and my every step, day and night, and my 
position in exile differs little from that in prison. The 
guards are permitted even to wake me in the night to 
see if I am safe. There is always one of the spies 
watching me" from a distance. But all this cannot 
transform me into a miserable creature, for I find every- 
where some good souls that wish to be useful to me. 

"Tell dear Mrs. Barrows I sympathize with all my 
heart with her sorrow in the loss of such a noble man as 
her husband. Her daughter, her son-in-law, and the 
estimable young ladies I saw working with her are 



152 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

before me. I remember every one with whom I was 
acquainted in America, especially the women who 
gained in my soul the best nooks. The young men of 
the settlement in New York will never be forgotten, 
as well as Mr. Ely." 

To Miss Blackwell. December 29, 1910-January 
11, 1911. 

"The new year has come, and I wish that you, my 
dearest daughter, may be as well as when I saw you. 
You see your Catherine is strong, although she is 
twice as old as you. Your two letters and the card 
from Gkorge Kennan gave me great pleasure, and 
made me so proud of myself I cannot express it. To 
have the confidence of such people as you both, as my 
dear Helena, it is a great comfort — a great comfort. 
Only see how happy I am — persecuted, banished, 
and yet beloved ! All these days, for instance, I 
have had so many visitors, poor comrades from all 
the corners of the large territory where we abide, 
that during the whole week I could not select a moment 
to write, to read, to be alone. My means are very 
small, but if one desires to be useful, it can be done 
in some way or other. The comrades are especially 
in need of books and papers, and of different tools for 
various kinds of manufacturing. There are shoe- 
makers, carpenters, locksmiths, etc. The places where 
they live are so small and so far from all good markets 
and shops that nothing worth while is to be found 
there. The want of money is a second reason, and 
the prohibition against leaving the place of residence 
assigned to them is the third. All these difficulties 
have to be overcome, and being older and more ex- 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 153 

perienced, I can sometimes help the poor boys to ar- 
range their little affairs. Many of them are without 
clothes, especially those who have come straight from 
prison. They are not allowed to take their clothes 
with them. All their belongings are left at the prison, 
and have to be forwarded to the owners at their place 
of destination; but the prison officials are allowed to 
steal all they wish, and only about a quarter of the 
goods are restored to the owners. One may plead 
and write as often as possible, without receiving any 
answer, and remain naked and hungry. How many 
deaths take place as the result of want, of despair, 
and of alcohol ! for there are natures that cannot sup- 
port such a way of life — the solitude, the daily pri- 
vations, the lack of hope. You understand my situa- 
tion, — that of an old mother who wants to aid every 
one of them. I help, I scold, I sustain, I hear con- 
fessions (like a priest), I give advice and warning; 
but this is only a drop in the ocean of misery. With 
all this, I feel myself strong and ready, always ready — 
perhaps because of this. 

"Write more about yourself, Helena, and the boys and 
girls whom I saw through you and with you. Is the 
New York settlement as interesting as ever.? There 
were a dozen good young people. Some of them have 
visited Russia; I read and heard of it, but had not 
the opportunity to meet them. Very sorry. Give 
them all my best wishes. You may read all the letters 
enclosed in yours, my dear Alice. No secret that 
you would not know. My life is very open now. I 
am under close surveillance. I cannot take ten steps 
without a spy at my heels ; but up to this time my 
correspondence is safe. It is only in the prisons now 



154 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

that letters have to be inspected. But they never 
hesitate to break their own rules. Your friend and 
second mother, Catherine." 

To George Kennan. December 29, 1910-January 
11, 1911. 

"Thank you, old friend, for your readiness to fill 
my life with your attentive goodness. I would like 
the Woman's Journal,^ and one of your best papers, 
and a review for which some of my American friends 
write. For books, I would like your works about 
Japan, and some others concerning some new ques- 
tions that are occupying the attention of the world. 
Now that I am out of prison, the classics do not attract 
me, and my imagination keeps traveling over the whole 
world, around all the earth, — even farther. How 
long it will last, who knows ! Often and often I see 
in the papers how many of my old friends have passed 
away forever, but I myself feel as if I were fifty and 
not sixty-seven. So glad, so happy to hear of you, 
to see your writing ! 

"Yes, our dear old friend, I remember your visit 
as well as if it were but yesterday. The first time I 
read your book about Siberia [1895], I laughed much 
over your saying that I should finish my days in 
Selenginsk and be buried there. Many and many 
times afterwards I looked back to those words, and 
was so eager to see you, our dear friend, the celebrated 
author of your beautiful book. Even the young people, 
so apt to forget or ignore history, are well informed 
about the writing and the author himself. And now, 
notwithstanding all the horrors we have survived in 

1 A woman suffrage paper edited by Miss Blackwell. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 155 

Russia, your book is translated and read everywhere, 
and those who knew you personally never speak of 
you without the best feeling of gratitude. I am sure 
you are as young and energetic as you were." 

To Miss Blackwell. January 25, 1911-February 

7, 1911. 

"The many pictures you sent me made a great 
sensation around me, for, after looking at them for 
some days in my cabin, I began to distribute them 
among the children, many of whom visit my poor 
dwelling, curious to see the 'grandmother' known 
about all the town as a persecuted person. Only two 
pictures I kept for myself : * Hello, mamma ! ' and a 
view of a villa; both pleased me much. Six letters 
from you, two cards from K., and one letter from Miss 
Starr. It is lucky, very lucky, for I am now quite 
alone, without my young boy who used to serve me 
and to nurse me. Michael Borash has been arrested, 
imprisoned, and sent away to another district, and is 
not permitted to quit his abode. What had he done.^* 
Nothing except to visit the old woman every day and 
do her housework. It is the second case of a man 
being banished for his acquaintance with your old 
Kitty, who thinks herself to be a witch, swallowing 
every one that approaches her. 

"No news, no theatre, no festivals. I avoid all 
sorts of routs, for the government is lying in wait 
for any pretext to wrong somebody or to do me harm. 
A Vv^eek ago one of our comrades was buried, and there 
were some of us present at the cemetery. Now the 
police are making capital out of this token of sym- 
pathy, though not a word was spoken, not a song sung. 



156 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

The name of every one present has been written down, 
and two young men were arrested before the funeral, 
as if to prevent any disturbance. . . . Nobody is sure 
of Hving in the same place even for half a year. Such 
insecurity deprives men of all energy and activity. 
How many have settled down to follow some trade 
and begun to work and to earn their bread, and suddenly, 
without any tangible cause, they have been arrested 
and sent away to a place where there is no work, nor 
means to obtain it ! Such persecutions drive men to 
despair. 

"But you, dearest, can write as often as you will, 
without fearing to be arrested, imprisoned, and exiled ! 

"It is cold — 40° and 45° frost. My cabin does 
not suffer too much, but out of doors it is too severe 
for my health. Yet I am going directly to take a bath, 
for my feet suffer without hot water. Half a mile 
to go there, another half mile to come back. Up to 
this time my bodily strength has not entirely forsaken 
me. 

" January 26-February 8. 

"Yesterday, when going to take my bath, I was 
accosted by the postilion, with a packet in his hand, 
searching for the address. He guessed it was for me, 
and handed it over. It was a beautiful book, 'The 
Tragedy of Pelee', by George—Kennan. My thanks 
to the author. How is his health.'^ His little photo- 
graph would be welcome in my cabin. I am very 
sorry my boy is not with me so that we might read 
the book together. The frost is intense. I remain in 
my log house quite alone with my books, newspapers, 
and letters. Many of them are full of good words, 
and make me contented with my destiny." 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 157 

With a picture postcard : 

"Everything is covered with deep snow now. In 
three months the spring will do her work, and this 
picture shows what poetry is the share of this north 
country, and what are the walks that this climate ajffords. 
Some hundred years hence, when people are more sen- 
sible, Siberia will be unrecognizable ; but now, O God ! 
how wild it is, how desert and rough ! It is good fortune 
for us that the peasantry and the islanders are good- 
hearted people and do not molest any one." 

To Miss Ellen Starr of Hull House, Chicago. January 

10-25, 1911. 
*' Certainly I was wrong when I said you would lose 
the vivacity of your feeling toward me, my beloved 
friend, my dear Ellen Starr ! The American women 
are not so expansive in words and manners as we Rus- 
sian women, but the stronger they are in their faith- 
fulness, the deeper is the foundation of their attach- 
ment, once formed. That I knew always ; nevertheless 
it was difficult to be persuaded that persons who are 
so constantly occupied, working so hard for a great 
many people, as you, as our kind Helena Dudley, 
could have time to think about a far-off friend, buried 
in Russian prisons and Siberian forests. The better 
for me, always so eager for love and friendship from 
those whom I love myself. Alice Blackwell was an 
exception to me. I saw during my personal acquaint- 
ance with her that she was apt to embrace the whole 
world with her beautiful heart, her strong soul ; to 
press it to her bosom, and never be tired of working 
for it. But she did too much for her human strength, 
and now she must rest a while. 



158 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

"Now I see there is no distance, no time for us; 
and, sitting so far one from another, we speak, we 
relate, as if we were together. For instance : I should 
like to know about the 'clever' lady that used to sit 
at the post in the first room of your settlement. About 

Mr. the commerciant that used to learn Italian 

with you. About the author of the book, 'The Soul 
of Black People' (if I am not mistaken). He pleased 
me especially. And very much I should like to know 
about Dr. Yarros, with whom my sympathies were 
growing every day. She and her friend (a teacher) 
were so hospitable, so eager to be useful. I do not 
ask about Miss Addams, being sure she will always 
remain in Chicago as the head of Hull House, sur- 
rounded with her old and new friends. But the life 
of many others is apt to change often, being more 
dependent on various circumstances. 

"As to my young man, who continues to be my 
devoted nurse, he is so much pleased with the flattering 
words with which you and Alice gratify him, that it 
seems to him almost impossible that he should be so 
highly appreciated. He is very modest. Each of the 
letters from America I have perused with him once 
more for his sincere satisfaction. He is a Social Dem- 
ocrat,^ but the difference of creeds (of programs) here 
in exile, as well as in the prisons, is very often an- 
nihilated by the necessity of sympathy and friendship. 
The use of personal capacities, and often the want of 

* The Social Democrats spread their propaganda mainly among the in- 
dustrial workers in the cities and towns. They held that peasants who 
owned any land, even though they were wretchedly poor, must be classed 
as capitalists. The Socialist Revolutionary party worked chiefly among 
the peasants, and emphasized the importance of ealisting the peasanta isx 
tibe bommou struggle a^iu^t opj^reseioa. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 159 

what one would desire, make people less fanatical, 
less dogmatic. 

"I have many young friends in these districts, near 
and far. All are working hard for their living; all 
are so glad when they receive any token of love or 
encouragement. That makes me responsible, for I 
consider the young people (of whom there are six 
hundred in the district of Kirensk) as my own children, 
my grandsons. And, just as it happens with a large 
family, there are good children and those who are less 
satisfactory. Some of them would be better if they 
were at home, where it is not so frightfully hard to 
overcome all the difficulties of life. But the heart of 
a mother is indulgent. Certainly I choose the better, 
but the wicked shall live too. 

"Thank you, dearest, for your desire to aid me. I 
have not received or heard of the money you sent. 
And yet it would do well here, where the need is so 
great that many boys have their feet frozen for want 
of suitable boots. How often my heart overflows 
with sorrow, seeing and hearing about such misery ! 
I do my utmost to spend as little as possible ; and yet 
I cannot keep my expenses under ten dollars a month, 
for my own wants. Even rye bread is twice as dear 
as in Russia. My health does not permit me to eat 
meat and many other things. Milk, tea, white bread, 
and some eggs, or a little macaroni, is all my provision. 
And yet I feel myself quite at ease, and strong enough 
for my age and all the odds. I never feel any dis- 
comfort in my little log house, having lived such a 
long time like a beggar, without my own shelter, 
my own bed, my own table to write a letter, never 
writing letters when I was living 'illegally.' And 



160 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

now I am as rich as a queen, and want nothing for 
myself. 

"Oh, dearest Ellen! forgive me my English. But 
I heard so many times in Chicago and everywhere 
else such words as : ' Your bad English is better to 
us than your good French,' that I consent to be laughed 
at, and to have my writing mended by your amiable 
hand. 

"Thus far I receive all the letters sent to my address. 
No letters can be read without a special order to the 
gendarmes. They know that I never permit myseK 
to write anything compromising ; nevertheless their 
curiosity is without end, and the habit of persecution 
is so old and strong that they are never tired of 
doing it. 

"Now during the Christmas festivals, when many 
young people here took pleasure in disguising them- 
selves and going through the town in masks, my 
keepers were afraid I should escape in that manner, 
and they ran about like lunatics, searching and looking 
after every one, intruding themselves into every house 
suspected to be the place of my visit. And I was 
sitting in my cabin, reading or talking with one of my 
friends. Every path I take is watched by a gloomy 
figure shrouded in black furs from head to foot, and 
standing immovable near the house I visit, waiting for 
me to return. Without permission I cannot set foot 
on the frozen river, for it would be regarded as an at- 
tempt to escape. All night they keep looking into 
the windows of my den (so low and blind it is), and I 
do not hang any curtains, to keep them from entering 
the interior of my dwelling. A thousand thanks for 
your desire to soften my fortune." 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSL4N REVOLUTION 161 

To INIiss Blackwell. February 4-21, 1911. 

"What a disaster, what desolation! I never sus- 
pected such bad things of you, my dear friends, AKce 
and Helena ! You are both ill and overpowered with 
your everlasting efforts to do the best, the most; to 
be always working, and tired over and over. It was 
your mode of life all the time I saw you. 

"Pray, both of you, conserve that health which is 
so necessary to many and many of your friends. You 
ought to feel that people have acquired the habit of 
addressing themselves to Alice Blackwell, to Helena 
Dudley, in all their needs and sorrows, as to their 
legalized officers, always ready to act and to aid. What 
a disappointment to them not to find these two inval- 
uable ladies at home! Think of me, too. You do, 
I know. 

"My best time to work at my table is the morning, 
but there are many who want me and take up my 
mornings, when my strength is fresh, my body strong. 
The days are very short, and shorter in my hut, with 
its small and badly arranged windows, 

"I confess I am tired to-day, especially because I 
could not be as useful to some persons as I wished. 
But my uneasiness will last only till early morning. 

"Your father has passed away. Oh, my daughter, 
how many good people we have lost ! In every news- 
paper I read an obituary concerning one of the best. 
And all these people are younger than I. How glad 
I am you have understood my religion and accepted 
it ! Glad for you, for me, for the world. — Now, my 
mind is full of belief and hope, and this makes me 
quiet and sure of the future. Here I have to do with 
many and many unhappy boys, who (some of them) 



162 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION^ 

are not so strong in their faith. I speak, I write, I 
exhort. That takes much time, and leaves not enough 
to read books. Do not send French translations, but 
only some English books. I prefer the originals. 
Some newspaper talking about our affairs would be 
very interesting. 

"December 4-21. 

"The whole day interviewed and interrupted. Not 
tired, but disturbed. And yet I try to be patient 
with everybody, for I know how much happier I am 
than others. 

"Many of the exiles are ill and lie in the hospital, 
where the food and all the treatment is horribly bad, 
dirty, and poor. The doctor, as well as all the officers 
of the government, is unworthy of the name. He 
receives very large pay, and will do nothing for the wel- 
fare of his patients. We have to prepare the necessary 
food and clothes to see them in any degree satisfied. 
For shame ! How bad everything in our country is now ! " 

She encloses two picture postcards, showing views 
of Kirensk. On them she writes : 

"This beautiful river Lena has very few shores to 
be built on ; big hills and stone mountains accompany 
its current from the beginning to the town of Yakutsk. 
Then it is very wide and flows between flat and boggy 
lowland, covered with a short and poor wood, some- 
times with grass, where the Yakuts pasture their cows 
and horses. Farther north there is nothing but the 
moss that satisfies the humble and useful deer, which 
are the livelihood of the Yakuts and other tribes of 
the far north. 

"This beautiful islet with its town, viewed from the 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 163 

next mountain. The diameter of the place is Httle 
more than a mile. It has nearly two thousand inhab- 
itants of mixed population. Most of them are de- 
scended from the convicts (ordinary malefactors) 
sent here for many and many years. Some come of 
their own will. Two or three big firms, having mil- 
lions at their disposition. Telegraph, post office, 
boards of treasure, many police of various grades, 
an enormous whisky factory (a government mon- 
opoly), two clubs, three churches, and many shops of 
every size. You will see the site of my dwelling near 
the dark park belonging to the little old monastery, 
with two or three monks. Before the town you see 
the river Lena, and behind the river Kyrenga; both 
are equally large in this place. All provisions are 
transported here from the west, and are twice as dear 
as in Russia. The culture is very low." 

To Miss Helena Dudley. February 17-March 2, 1911. 

"You are all too kind to me. This makes me forget 
my position as an outcast, destined to a solitary ex- 
istence, and always apprehensive of a mischief that is 
awaiting me or my nearest comrades. 

"The book sent by George Kennan gives me the 
best moments of my evening, so vividly and so en- 
gagingly are described all the scenes of the tremendous 
event seen by our excellent author. With much in- 
terest would I read the work of Mr. Walling, 'Russia's 
Message', as well as the book prepared now by Arthur 
Bullard. If it will not be ready for a long time, let 
him send his writings about Russia, printed in several 
magazines. It is a great satisfaction to read the 
writings of people whom you knew and loved. It is 



164 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

like a conversation. When I peruse the * Tragedy 
of Pelee' I am in the society of our old friend. I see 
him, I hear him, I examine his every act and intention. 
The characters he describes are of a high interest to 
me, for I am fond of brave and honest men. The 
other day I received a box from him containing a nice 
shawl, white as snow. The post office officials ex- 
claimed : 'Even in America they take an interest in 
your destiny ! ' It is true, I feel myself watched by 
my friends from all sides of the universe. And this 
my good fortune is felt not only by your grandmother, 
but by all around her. This last fact gives all these 
signs of benevolence a very large meaning and many 
good effects. Every grandmother has a lot of grand- 
sons about her, and they are dear to her heart. Ask 
it, my dearest Helena, of Mrs. Barrows. 

"Yes, I have my family in the United States of Amer- 
ica, and I look upon all your homes as my own. How 
beautiful it is ! It makes me stronger and cheers me 
up, and even if death should take me away before I see 
you, my best feelings, my soul will remain with you. 

" Fortunately for me, this Siberian winter is so warm 
and soft that the inhabitants say they do not remember 
one like it for many years. 

" Your grandmother and your Catherine. 

"As for clothing and other matters of domestic 
use, I have only the necessary, and do not want more. 
All the surplus is divided among the necessitous people 
of the colony; but money is the most needful thing 
to apply to the demands of the situation. 

"February 22. All these days I have been uneasy 
with the wicked influenza, and did not go out, — could 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 165 

do nothing except read papers and be tired to death 
with the visits of many boys, who, f eeHng the approach 
of spring, are walking from place to place in search of 
some work and change of life ; of that gloomy and dim 
and miserable life that makes them endure all sorts 
of privations and offences from rough Nature, as well 
as from the government, always ready to spoil every 
attempt to improve their mode of existence. Some- 
times I wonder, abashed and terrified by the actions of 
the government towards the political exiles. They 
are persecuted merely for efforts to gain their bread, 
and it is not astonishing if some of them have recourse 
to violence, deprived as they are of all possibility of 
settling down like other people. The beasts of the 
forest are incomparably better organized and more 
satisfied with its institutions." 

To Arthur Bullard. About March 2-16, 1911. 

*'I have all the best Russian newspapers and maga- 
zines, and my friends are doing all they can to render 
my abode as comfortable as possible. Yet I accept 
every donation with gratitude, for around me I have an 
innumerable quantity of people who are in want of 
everything. There are about a thousand young men 
in our district of Kirensk, nine tenths of them without 
any resources. I have the possibility of knowing 
about their needs, and I do what I can. 

"My greetings to your three friends. I remember 
them quite well. Oh, how cheerful it would be to 
make visits to the houses with wives and babies ! God 
bless them. 

"My health is improving. I am stronger than when 
in the fortress." 



166 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

To Mrs. Barrows and Miss Black well. 

"April 1-15, 1911. 

"My sister Isabel, my daughter Alice: North 
America is my second patrie. I have often said : 
'The United States is the country I would choose to 
inhabit, after my own great and poor country.' You 
both, Helena, and the rest of the women I knew in 
America, made my presence in your country so full 
of good impressions that nothing can efface them. 
I must add my gratitude to some young men who took 
part in the idea that fills my mind and my heart. I 
have friends, good and devoted friends, in Russia. They 
have known me for sixty-seven years, and it is quite natu- 
ral to see them accustomed to appreciate one another. 
But with you I passed only a few months, and only 
enjoyed, only enjoyed. Yet you believed in my sin- 
cerity, my earnest wish to be good and faithful. For 
you are sincere and faithful yourselves." 

To June Barrows Mussey^ (Mrs. Barrows's grandson). 
"When you grow up, your grandmother Catherine 
Breshkovsky will tell you some stories from her own 
life, and you will learn from her experience how whole- 
some it is to care to endure all the roughnesses that 
we encounter marching through the vicissitudes of the 
circumstances accompanying the sinuous ground of 
the way we are thrown on. She feels herself happy 
and strong because she is always faithful to her religion, 
which bids us love our brotherhood, mankind, as dearly 
as we love ourselves." 

1 Written on a picture postcard representing an old Yakut telling stories 
to his grandson. 



LITTLE GRANDISIOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 167 

To Miss Dudley.! (Undated.) 
"I cannot and shall not forsake my poor boys, even 
for the happiness of spending my last days amidst 
such friends as you. I am sure that you will under- 
stand me, and love me no less. I am a mother of a 
large family, who are accustomed to see me devoted 
to their interests and to have me share their fate, 
bad as it is. Now, represent to yourself a mother 
forsaking her children, and going to those that are 
rich and happy without her! Not only my boys here, 
but all the young people all over the country would be 
grieved, and their faith in their grandmother would 
be broken. For myself, I confess, such a life (for a 
long time) as you desire for me would be difficult for 
me, who am accustomed to an existence very scarce 
and modest. You cannot imagine what a want of the 
least comfort we support, having always in view the 
mendicity of the budget of our people for every day's 
needs. And think of the feelings of a mother who 
should leave her children scourged by their foes, and 
go herself to enjoy a company where she finds only 
friendship, love, and worship ! What would you say 
of it? 

"Yesterday there were two good boys with me, and 
I asked them, laughingly, if they approved of such a 
course. The faces of both became sad and severe, 
and one of them said: *I do not conceive it.' As I 
understand it, that was not merely my own opinion 
and feeling, but the voice of every sane and uncor- 
rupted soul. If till now I am anything in the eyes of 
my countrymen and yours, it is for my sincerity, and 

1 Miss Dudley had proposed that an effort be made to get leave for Mme. 
Breshkovsky to come to Ameac«u 



168 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

tile simplicity of my existence. I am even afraid that 
I should not suit quite well such a rich country as yours, 
with its habit of having great talents of every sort at 
its service. I have no talents, you saw that yourself. 
But my simple nature suits my people's simple heart, 
and we understand and love each other. We are slow 
in our doings, we are devoid of the ambition that 
stimulates the doings of others, but we are faithful 
to our Ideal, which is brotherhood." 

To Miss Blackwell. March 30-April 13, 1911. 

" Two letters from you, one from Isabel and one from 
Helena — all this is so much luck, so much delight, 
that I am quite unable to fulfill your request to describe 
my health in every particular. You can judge for 
yourself when I say that I inhabit my cabin quite 
alone, moving about very slowly, but being able to 
do all I wish except to split the wood, to clean my 
walks, to bring water, and to scrub the floor. I do 
not wash my clothes either. All the rest I do myself, 
for it is very little. I never dine, and do not cook. 
Tea, milk, white bread, and some eggs are my every- 
day eating. I could have excellent supplies, very good 
provisions, although very dear, but I don't wish them. 
First, my health requires an abstemious diet, second, 
I do not want to spend the money on myself, having 
around me hundreds of hungry young men, frozen 
and exhausted. Certainly there are some gaps in my 
every-day regime, but we Russian people, we political 
exiles, we cannot imagine our life otherwise than as 
full of privation. Therefore anyone who is as well 
situated (comparatively) as I am has no reason to 
complain. I receive for myself a lot of money that 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 169 

would make me rich and comfortable. I enjoy a large 
correspondence, thanks to the desire of my friends 
to know about me. This liberality, as I perceive, 
has alarmed the government, and the story of my 
deportation to another place was invented to interrupt 
the exchange of news between me and my friends. 
And it was stopped for some time. But there were 
other people who wrote the truth, and now all is going 
as before, to my great joy. 

" Certainly it would be better for me to have a young, 
devoted comrade at my side, who would be free enough 
and willing to serve me. Yet, as that cannot be, 
there is an old cobbler (a political exile too), a good 
drunkard, but an honest and devoted man, very 
reasonable when sober. This Platon comes to see 
me every two days, drinks tea with me, and speaks 
abundantly on the deeds of which he was once a wit- 
ness or an actor. He loves and reveres the memory 
of many of our comrades who were exiled twenty -five 
and thirty years ago, now dead, or old and crushed 
by illness and all sorts of disaster. Now that he knows 
he is to visit me once in so often to fulfill his duty, he 
refrains from drinking, is always polite, and does his 
best to please and to be useful. 

"April 1, or your 13 April. 
"I wish to be polite too, and to answer as well as I 
know how your question as to my health. My chronic 
troubles are : (1) neuralgia through all my organism, 
the feet, the hands and the back, including the head ; 
(2) rheumatism in the feet and the shoulders ; (3) kid- 
ney trouble, which made me very ill during my last 
imprisonment, and was not cured at all, for the doctor 



170 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

(intentionally or unintentionally) took no notice of it, 
and cured me only of the hemorrhoidal attacks which 
were the result of want of motion. Now this last dis- 
ease is nearly gone, but as for the first three, they will 
remain, I think, till the end. When I am cautious 
and prudent, these three foes of mine behave themselves 
supportably enough ; when imprudent, or forgetting 
to provide for urgent needs, then I feel badly, but 
not so much so as to be unable to move and to eat. 
Besides these maladies, fever during the winter once 
or twice a month visited my old body, and made me 
feeble, unable to do the least work. The intense frosts 
are over and I feel better." 

To Mrs. Isabel C. Barrows. March 28-April 10, 1911. 
"Dear, dearest and a thousand times dearest friend 
and sister, Isabel C. Barrows ! From this my letter 
you will see what a martyrdom it is to have to do with 
a certain class of people. Your dear letter, sent to 
me through the hands of a bureaucrat, has reached 
me only to-day ! You wrote it November 17, 1910, 
and I received it April 10, 1911. It was traveling 
from one board to another, from one administrator to 
many others, till a policeman brought it to my little 
blockhouse, where I read it with tears in my eyes, 
learning only to-day how much you were doing for 
your old friend and hov/ good, how exceedingly good 
your excellent husband was to me. God be blessed 
that your letter has reached me at last. It is such a 
great comfort, such a delight, you cannot imagine it. 
I only supposed all that you tell me, but never knew 
the details of your coming to Russia, and the great 
interest that your countrymen took in my fate. I 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 171 

am quite ashamed of such sacrifices as you undertook 
for my sake. My soul is filled with pride and glad- 
ness at the same time. What is exile and all persecu- 
tions compared with the joy of having such devoted 
friends ! 

" March 29-April 11. 
"Oh, yes, the boys keep coming to see me and to 
tell me their needs ; rarely have I time to finish my 
letter without interruption. Now I am so anxious 
to know if this letter will reach you. Never to be 
sure of the lot of one's correspondence, of to-morrow, 
— to be a thing in the hands of others, — it is a dis- 
agreeable position ; especially when we wish so eagerly 
to get our feelings transported there where our best 
friends are. It would be a wound to my soul if you 
thought me ungrateful. And what do you mean by 
saying you are too old to hope we shall meet again? 
I do not think so. On the contrary ! In some years 
we shall meet and spend many good hours together. 
Why not ? Only sixty-seven years old I am, and you 
are much younger. My health, if not strong, can yet 
endure for some time the uneasiness of the life that 
awaits me for some years longer. I hope to see your 
(our) grandson, the little June Barrows Mussey, who 
is dear to me as your and your husband's descendant, 
which makes me sure we shall have in this young 
man a brave, an honest, a beautiful boy, always 
ready to serve the interests of humanity. Kiss his 
hands and little feet for me." 

To Miss Blackwell. May 8-21. 
"The letters from Miss Julia G. Drury and Mr. 
Lewis Herreshoff, Bristol, E. I., written April 13, 



172 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

1911, reached me only yesterday. I am not only 
touched, but transported into quite another world of 
thought and feeling. 

"While I perceive all the exaggerations concerning 
my qualities and capacities, I understand nevertheless 
that the friendship and sympathy which you all, my 
friends in America, show me, are not in vain, that 
there is a solid foundation on which these feelings are 
built. The better for me ! 

"You will comprehend me when you remember that 
for half a century my whole being has been full (from 
top to toes) of one straining : to improve the moral, 
mental, and economic life of my people. It is too old 
a habit, and one cannot break the bond that unites him 
with the existence of his folk. And what an example 
it would be to my youngest comrades ! God forbid ! 

"Seventeen letters from you, two from Isabel, two 
from Ellen Starr, three from my Helena Dudley, one 
from Arthur Bullard, my boy, from Mrs. Kennan one. 
And so many Easter cards that all the children of 
Kirensk and my boys too had a present from you. 

"Every one of my friends asks what comfort would 
best suit my life in Siberia. I answer : A suit of winter 
clothing, from head to foot. 

"I shall never be able to provide it myself, for all 
the money I have I destine for others, who are suffer- 
ing more than I. My friends have often asked me to 
buy winter clothing here in Kirensk, but I never did 
and never shall do it. It must be light and warm. 
Boots, pantaloons, overcoat, and a cap; gloves, too. 
That for my health : and for my soul's welfare, some 
money to aid the needy, to buy them tools and ma- 
terials for work. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 173 

"Your devoted and a little excited and enerved 
Catherine." 

To Ellen Starr. (Undated.) 

"Twice I have read your letter and the verses of 
Sophie Jewett. It is the first time I have seen them. 
I read also those in the New York Times ,^ and I am 
ashamed. Ashamed, yes, for I do not believe myself 
a heroine or a saint. It is natural to be reasonable 
and loving when you have inherited these qualities 
from your parents. But why should we speak about 
me, when there are so many questions that interest 
me much more ? For instance : There are some 
writings of mine that would be read with no little 
use by young people who desire to form, to improve 
their characters. My sayings and reasoning are very 
simple, and therefore very clear and practical. I 
have never retouched them, and don't feel able to do 
it, but if somebody else would go over them and trans- 
late some of the best places, I should be glad. Alice 
ought to be of the council, and you, being stronger in 
health, ought to help her. As soon as I get my writ- 
ings from the hands of the police, I will copy some 
sheets and send them to you. 

"I agree with you that the presence of honest and 
inspired minds is a great blessing for mankind, and 
we ought to teach our children to honor above all the 
nobleness of the soul, for there is not a greater treasure 
on earth. And yet we should teach them, too, that 
this ought to become a fact of every day, and, speaking 
truly, every human being must try and can succeed 
in attaining the highest grade of mental dignity. It 

* See Appendix. 



174 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

is our right and it is our duty. Otherwise why should 
we be better than the rest ? 

"When I see one of the noble hearts of my boys, I 
become as poetical and sentimental as you, dear 
friend, and I admire the earnestness and strength of 
their feelings. But when I hear people praise my 
own qualities, it makes me feel confused and abashed. 
Too long have I carried on my work, and have had 
time to be accustomed to see it as an everyday task. 
Nevertheless I confess that your letters and the good 
words I have heard from my American friends gave me 
great joy." 

To Miss Dudley. May 20. 

"Overpowered! Overpowered! Overpowered! 
Nine letters, besides postcards and innumerable mag- 
azines, books and papers ! All at once, for our mail 
was cut off for a whole month because the great 
river Lena and our less great river Kyrenga were 
carrying the ice to the north. The spring is cold, 
but I feel well, and I am happy because of the 
tokens of love my American friends send me in such 
numbers. 

"I will not repeat all my words of gratitude. You 
must know once for the rest of my life that I am a 
creature full of gratitude, and prize every token of 
friendship and goodness. One thing makes me wonder 
a little : it is the admiration for my character and my 
patience in enduring my fate. First, I will say that 
there are many and many people among us who have 
shown not less but more courage and grandeur of soul 
during their whole lives, — so many people who have 
died like very heroes. Secondly, we Russians are a 



LITTLE _GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 175 

people of religion ; we have one in oui; soul, through 
all the nation, and the worship of the beloved Idea is 
our national trait. This capacity of appreciating the 
worshiped Idea above all the rest of the material 
world makes us strong and willing to sacrifice our- 
selves for its sake. This conviction makes me bashful 
and confused when hearing or reading beautiful words 
about myself. I would think it is so easy and so com- 
fortable to serve a cause chosen by ourselves ! Cer- 
tainly one is tired sometimes, and sometimes irritated 
against all the silliness of manliind, yet it does not 
continue, having no time to mourn, obliged as we 
are to think how to do better. 

"I hope some day to get my manuscript written 
in the fortress. I hear that it has already come, 
and the chief of police is reading it, out of curiosity 
or fear. You see with what might it is endowed ! 
The administration of the fortress consented to give 
it out to me. The Police Department in St. Peters- 
burg consented too, and yet the chief of police in 
Kirensk is allowed to decide whether my writings 
ought to be given over to me. And he has kept them 
for many weeks, and will keep them for months perhaps. 
I never speak with him, and have no wish to meet 
him anywhere. This winter some comedies and 
dramas were given here many times, and some vocal 
and instrumental concerts (thanks to the unofiicial 
participation of some boys) ; but I never go to see 
or hear them, disgusted to be in the same room with 
the policemen, who are always there in force, never 
paying for their places. 

"I have to answer 32 letters this week. Lady 
Mackintosh's letter made me glad ; very." 



176 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

To Arthur Bullard. (Undated.) 
"Bullard, my boy! Already in Panama! You 
grind yourself into pieces and will be old at forty. 
I would have you always young and active, but with- 
out excitement, or, better, without too much strain. 
It is so delightful to know our friends are in good 
health, and strong in body and soul, and it makes 
us so sad when we hear that one of them is declining 
in strength. Pray, do not exhaust your nerves; pre- 
serve your capability of work for the future too. It 
cheers me up to know that here and there are boys 
and girls who keep in their hearts an unexhausted 
desire to aid the world to do better. Such minds 
and characters are the flowers that embellish our 
earth. Only think how gloomy and cold it would 
be without the best ! I once asked you : ' What would 
become of your country if every year 10,000 of your 
best people were exiled from it .^^ ' You answered, 
*If only fifty men, the best of us, should go away every 
year, our country would remain like a desert.' 

"My friend ! You must work, you must love and 
feel heartily, you must make efforts to improve your- 
self and others, and yet you must learn to be more 
abstract, to consider the world and its phenomena 
with more coolness — all the phenomena, not ex- 
cluding those that concern us personally. You have 
long known, I am sure, that a person who cares much 
for his own welfare, and is much affected by all that 
happens in the sphere of his own life, is much more 
enerved and tired with the world than a person whose 
mind is dwelling on the questions that concern man- 
kind as a whole. I don't mean that one can live like 
a machine, never hurt by the acridity of the atmosphere 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 177 

created by our silliness and ignorance, by the mis- 
chiefs that come over and over in a very wonderful 
miscellaneous form and quantity; but one can get 
the habit of struggling through all his existence and 
never being disappointed, never exhausted. More 
philosophy, more contemplation, more perception 
reaching into the future. — You know well yourself 
how to do, and it is only my longing for your welfare 
that makes me speak about questions so thoroughly 
studied by every one interested in the existence of his 
own psychology. I wish to know you safe and con- 
served. 

"Now I have to answer twenty letters more. The 
day is warm. My window is open. The little meadow 
before my blockhouse is full of hens and cocks . . . 
so peaceful . . . and so much grief around ! " 



CHAPTER XIII 

To Miss Blackwell. May 27-June 9, 1911. 

"You ask me what I think about woman suffrage. 
In Russia the question of the equahty of rights of 
both sexes has been decided affirmatively, not only 
by the intelligent people but by the workmen and 
peasantry too. Like many other progressive ideas, 
that of the equality of rights is delayed only by the 
same force that holds back all the best beginnings in 
the country. We have no need to preach the equality 
of the sexes, or that of the races inhabiting our country, 
for the idea as a principle is accepted by the majority 
of our people. This idea is included as a part of the 
whole faith we confess. But as we have on the other 
hand a body of black-meaning rascals, there is, in 
Russia also, a group of women writing and speaking 
on the necessity of conferring on women all the political 
rights which men enjoy. (Up to this time I have 
never seen the papers and magazines of the Russian 
suffragists. Now I shall ask to have some sent me.) 
Here, the women and the men alike are deprived of 
every right, and alike they understand that before 
all other rights one ought to struggle for the right to 
breathe. 

"In a country like yours, it is indispensable to 
further the question of equality by all means, for, 
firstly, the means are very large and open, and, sec- 
ondly, every line of progress advances more swiftly 
when there is a strong group of active and intelligent 

178 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 179 

heads and arms to promote it. I welcome with all 
my heart the intensity of the efforts shown so clearly 
and so gracefully in your estimable and beloved 
Womaji^s Journal. When yesterday I read the issue 
of May 6, 1911, I felt myself in such an admirable 
society, so witty, so elegant and so devoted, that it 
seemed to me a beautiful festival made for the sake 
of equality, humanity and brotherhood. 

"Certainly, I do not think that the decision of the 
question of women's fate consists only in the suffrage. 
Their destiny is so great, so big, so broad, and so end- 
less, that it cannot be defined by one casual, though 
historic, episode of their existence. Therefore, when 
in the fortress I wrote on women's destiny, I took 
the question in a larger sense, and considered their 
whole significance as one half of the human race — a 
half that holds in its hands the future of mankind. 
The development of body and soul depends on women's 
capacities, their experience, their love, their accomplish- 
ments, moral and intellectual. As man has found his 
destiny in nourishing and keeping safe his race, so 
woman must take for herself the duty of improving 
the race and making it worthy of the name of homo 
sapiens. All that is love, tenderness, grace, beauty, 
courage, abnegation for the sake of large ideals, for 
the welfare of the future inhabitants of the world, — 
all these feelings and capacities are the result of our 
organism, are innate in us, and prepare our natures 
to be not only wives and mothers, but teachers, doctors 
of medicine, professors, ministers, statisticians, hygien- 
ists, psychologists. Socialists, and all that is necessary 
to be known by persons whose duty it is to educate 
and elevate the human race. Certainly, women have 



180 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

all political rights as well as men, without which they 
never will have their actions as free as they should be. 
Every human being has a right to be all the best he 
can be, therefore nothing ought to embarrass his 
efforts, his strivings. That must be understood by 
every one. But the question of duty is much more 
complex, for Nature herself has made some differences 
between the sexes, and these differences, in their turn, 
have created different instincts, sympathies, feelings, 
likings, as well as different dispositions of mental 
capacities. I never wish to discuss which half of 
mankind is better, or more genial. For my part, I 
am sure that both halves are wonderfully, beautifully 
made ! And yet I prefer to remain a woman, for I relish 
very much the most delicate sides of the human soul. 

"So, dearest daughter, agreeing that the happiness 
of our race consists in everlasting struggle against the 
wicked habits of the past and in everlasting straining 
to elevate ourselves to the highest degree of perfection, I 
have found out that of the two halves of mankind 
it is the women that can better, and ought to, as 
more inclined to it, work (more successfully in every 
sense) in this field of human action. 

"And it makes me very and very sorry, seeing that 
many women, well educated and intelligent enough, 
instead of doing this beautiful work, instead of carving 
out men's souls and giving to the world more and 
more accomplished examples, are eager to become, if 
not policemen, yet something like agents of the ad- 
ministration, officers of various institutions that con- 
cern only the exterior side of the life of our country. 
They are not trying earnestly enough to prove and 
to improve their own talents, their own creative force. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 181 

They are not doing for the welfare of mankind all 
they can do as women, as mothers, and governesses, 
as sisters and companions, as leaders of the morality 
of our world, as philosophers of the great love that 
unites all souls together and establishes such a brother- 
hood among us that no exterior forms or political 
constructions, no new principles or teachings can de- 
prive us of it. Our very souls ought to be cultivated 
in such a direction as to choose and to prefer the 
higher, largest and clearest ideas. This poor earth- 
ball of ours ought to be our home instead of our world, 
and we ought to be all one family, not at all so large 
as not to be known to everybody. The more you 
think about the affairs of the earth and its popula- 
tion, the more you remark how limited are the bands 
of the life of the place we dwell on. In comparatively 
few centuries, every man will know every nook of 
our globe, and will be acquainted with every tinge 
and color of our skin, while industry is making so 
great a progress as to permit us to fulfill all the desires 
of our curiosity. And if we remain only indifferent 
spectators of all we see, we shall very soon be tired of 
our character of idle spectators. Quite another thing 
when our heart and our mind are interested in what 
they are contemplating. In this case we not only 
look, not only satisfy our curiosity; we feel strongly, 
and all our capacities are working with the desire 
to improve the status quo when it is bad, or to learn 
to assume the witnessed, when it is worthy of it. 

*'I am sure there are men who possess a very delicate 
and beautiful soul, a fine mind, that picks out of the 
world all the best it can encounter. Yet I am sure 
such minds, belonging to the masculine sex, are rather 



182 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

an exception; while the construction of our feminine 
mind has been cultivated during so many thousands 
of centuries in a pacific direction, preferring the sphere 
of sense and meditation. , . . Yes, I am sure it is 
time for the women to step out as educators, as creators 
of new relations between one another. There must be 
principles, but there ought to be practice, too. Who 
will set the example.? Only those that can observe 
the functions of our body and mind from the very in- 
fancy of its growth can inculcate successfully new 
habits and new inclinations in the coming generation. 
"For the winter I shall take another cabin, more 
comfortable; this one being too old and demolished. 
Cold, rain, wind, all comes through." 

To Miss Blackwell. July 1, 1911. 

"You wish to have news from me oftener, and I 
am so slow with my answer. Perhaps I am getting 
old, though I cannot believe it. When, feeling my- 
self uneasy, I am tired, not so alert and brave as I 
am accustomed to be, it seems to me it is a stranger 
woman, and I consider her as a queer and drollish 
being, looking at her with disgust. It is not I. Not 
only in my imagination, but in my innermost sensa- 
tion. And you can be at ease about the disposition 
of my mind. Even when feeble in body, I shall re- 
main always strong in soul. I cannot be otherwise : 
the mind has worked too long in the same direction, 
and the habit is formed." 

To Miss Dudley. June 20-July 2, 1911. 

"I have many cards coming from various parts of 
the world; Japan, Australia, Honolulu, Canada, Cali- 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 183 

fornia, Florida, and other places in your great republic. 
It is very pleasant to have every mail bringing some 
new magazine, some new view of far off lands and 
countries. Nevertheless, being a Slavonic woman, 
— therefore slow and fanciful, — I am not able to 
respond to all these tokens of benevolence, and feel 
myself always guilty toward the good people who send 
me so many delicacies. And so, if it has been said 
in one of the magazines that I am delighted to receive 
news and pictures, it must be said, too, how thankful 
I feel." 

To Miss Blackwell. July 11-22, 1911. 

"You have spoiled me so that the two weeks with- 
out your letters seemed two months to me. During 
this time I have had letters from many American 
women unknown to me, but very amicable, full of 
sympathy toward the old exiled 'Baboushka.' The 
book I got from Mr. Lewis Herreshoff ('The Seven 
Ages of Washington') made me cheerful, for I like 
much to read about great characters ; but all this 
cannot make up for the lack of news from my daughter. 
You are my own ; so I felt even in America. 

"Now I want to say some words about the WomarCs 
Journal. It is a special publication for the study 
and propagation of one serious idea, which ought to 
be realized as soon as possible. And you are quite 
right when all that does not concern this idea, directly 
or indirectly, is excluded from the paper. In this 
way your journal has acquired a vigorous and warlike 
character, and makes a strong impression. I was 
glad to see that your parents were commemorated. 
You and I are happy in having had such excellent 



184 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

parents. I thank my fate every day for this good 
fortune. 

"I find that all your magazines printed for a special 
purpose are much better than those which are destined 
to entertain their readers. Life and Labor, the Na- 
tional Geographic Magazine for instance, even those 
for young people and children are very well edited. 
The Outlook is welcome, too. As for the magazines 
you pick up in the railroad train and send to me, they 
make a beautiful store of books that furnish reading 
for the scholars and beautiful pictures for the children. 
To-day I must congratulate two young girls (nine and 
four years old) because it is their birthday, and I shall 
give them some of the pictures, bright with colors, made 
to attract the attention of the public to some new ware 
or invention. How glad will be the young damsels 
getting such unseen tableaux ! 

" Long ago I formed the habit of looking upon people 
like growing children, and these last as little animals, 
growing with every day nearer and nearer to the 
human being; and, surveying the course of their 
development, I learned to understand the psychology 
of our mind, our soul ; also to distinguish the inclina- 
tions of the two sexes, and to find out how many ex- 
ceptions there are on both sides, which form a lot of 
miscellaneous examples of our race. Many, many 
types there are; the combinations being so manifold, 
so fanciful. Very interesting. 

"I strain my energy and my English trying to 
answer every address sent to me with cards, postals, 
magazines, and yet I am sure that many remain with- 
out answers, and it torments my mind. 

"Somebody said Miss Addams is a living proof that 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 185 

a woman can do very much without voting. One 
can answer : She would do much more when the 
votes of her sisters were with her. The book Miss 
Addams wrote, Miss Starr must send me. 

"Soon I shall have two albums full of American 
postal cards, and it will be a commonwealth object, 
everyone will enjoy it. 

"Next month I shall change my cabin for another 
one, not so old and dilapidated. It is on the same 
street, and not far from the neighbors who are so 
good about helping me in my little wants, but the 
courtyard is not so large, and will not be my own 
domain, for there is a house on the same yard, peopled 
with a widow and her two daughters. The owner of 
the house dwells there too. Perhaps they will be 
good to me. I hope so. My health is always better. 
I take care of it, and pray you, as well as my sister 
Isabel and our dearest and best Helena, to take ex- 
ample and follow my system. Spare your forces as 
long as possible, for a life devoted long to the chosen 
cause is the best example we can give to our posterity." 

To Mrs. Barrows. July 12-15. 

**I am sure the parents of June will not spoil the 
boy with too much cajoling and nursing. I wish he 
might have a sister. I love the girls; there are ex- 
cellent ones." 

To Miss Dudley. 5 a.m., July 21, 1911. 

*'You see, I shall begin very early, in order to re- 
main alone and be able to write. During the day my 
cabin is never empty. The boys keep coming and 



186 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

going out to see the grandmother, to tell their affairs, 
to take counsel, to ask, to pray, to be consoled, to get 
books, papers, some clothes, money, and oftener to 
spend some hours with a soul they know to be devoted 
to their mental and material interest. I was uneasy 
last month, and so much visitation made me fatigued ; 
yet, knowing the boys have not a nook where they feel 
themselves as well off as with me, I only once cheated 
them for coming too late in the evening, for at ten I 
go to bed. Oh, poor children, they put up Vv^ith every- 
thing from their grandmother, and are delighted to be 
loved and cherished by her. Working very hard they 
earn a very poor subsistence only, for every path, 
every effort on their part is checked and confronted 
with the hatred of those who have the might to do 
all the evil. They are arrested and transported from 
place to place on every occasion of the ill humor of 
an official. Not one knows what will become of him 
to-morrow. I am not willing to speak about it, other- 
wise it would be impossible to find colors and expres- 
sions to depict all that we are subjected to. 

"I do not complain. For my part, I am too well 
accustomed to all these spectacles, and support my 
fate bravely enough; but seeing the best youth of 
the country mutilated, deformed, exterminated, one 
cannot remain indifferent. 

"A very few days have been warm; in two months 
we shall see snow again, and for seven and eight 
months. There are many beautiful flowers in the 
woods and vales here, but I never leave the town, 
and can see them only when brought. I am happy 
in the devotion of my boys and the love of my friends 
in America." 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 187 

To Mrs. Barrows. May 30- June 12, 1911. 

** Lincoln's statue and seven other cards ornament 
my window before me, and the mignonette ^ will 
make the delight of many houses. 'The Order of 
Peace and Good Will' (by Charles F. Dole) is a beau- 
tiful copy. Pity I am reading it alone." 

To Miss Blackwell. August 24-September 6, 1911. 

"Why do I write to you in English and not French? 
Because I feel myself nearer to you, to Isabel and 
Helena. I like very much this rich and original 
organ of expression. 

"You were jealous about my mentioning the 'boys' 
only. The reason is that in the district of Ejrensk 
there are a thousand boys and only eight or ten girls, 
scattered all over it. Here in the town I have had 
only one. The exiled and condemned women, who 
are not in the hard labor prisons, are settled part of 
them in the west of Siberia and part in the southern 
districts of Irkutsk. Only those who were not tried, 
but exiled by administrative order, are settled in the 
region of Yakutsk, 1500 miles to the north. 

"Aug. 25-Sept. 7. 
"Yesterday this letter was interrupted by the visit 
of a squadron of gendarmes and police. They came 
to make a search in my lodging, and turned over all 
my correspondence and all the papers and magazines. 
They remained an hour and a half. There was noth- 
ing to be sequestered, and as the gendarmes could 

1 Mrs. Barrows had sent Madame Breshkovsky a package of mignonette 
seed. 



188 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

not go away without taking something, they took the 
photographs showing me with some of my comrades. 

"Again the pohce of Kirensk are troubled about 
my safety ; again the chief himself is tripping around 
my cabin every night now, in fear that I may be 
transported to some secret place and vanish away. 
It is very disagreeable, for the neighbors' hounds 
keep on barking for hours after these nightly visits, 
and I cannot sleep. It was the same all last winter, 
and now it is beginning again. I laugh very much 
about these fusses, and yet I am fidgeting about the 
fate of those who come to visit me, the boys who 
cannot avoid the connection with me, having nobody 
else to nurse them. 

"Your songs, Alice, I sing them when alone, invent- 
ing tunes of my own. 

"Now I am not alone in reading English. In my 
vicinity (400 miles from me) there is an exiled pro- 
fessor who reads English with much delight, and the 
Independent is appointed for him. After having 
looked it over, I send it to Kachug, a village on the 
shore of the Lena, where our professor lives. Another 
boy comes to read with me, and I let him read your 
letters. 

"We have in Russia a great many devoted girls, 
full of abnegation ; but their sincere earnestness makes 
them timid ; they think too little of themselves. And 
see, how beautiful is the character and how multiple 
the capacities of our Aunt Isabel, and yet she never 
minds it, never cries out, when in her place a man 
would be a celebrity known all the world over. And 
remark that her mental activity does not prevent her 
from exercising her womanly feelings and being tender 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 189 

towards all with whom she sympathizes. The female 
organism, as well as the habit of observing and analyz- 
ing, makes us women more inclined to sympathize 
with the feelings of others. The mode of life in every 
country has made the men more bureaucratic, more 
formalists, and more hardhearted. Undoubtedly a 
reasonable education will by and by modify this differ- 
ence between the sexes ; and also the female sex will 
become stronger in mind and body. 

"I remember always how beautiful and how heavenly 
sweet and splendid was our best woman, Lucy Stone, 
the ornament of the human race. 

"My health is still improving. The rheumatism 
and neuralgia are insignificant during the summer; 
and my splendid lodging, which awaits me, will render 
me safe during the winter too, with the aid of your 
flannels. 

"I have a dinner every day now, and feel strong 
and lofty, as if I were a princess, young and rich and 
proud. The calf which is pasturing in my courtyard 
has become a friend of mine, and I prance before him 
Hke another caK." 

To Lillian D. Wald. August 29-September 11, 1911. 

"Beloved and esteemed friend. Miss Wald: 

"How rich you have made me, sending me such a 
beautiful choice of magazines, which now (and with 
every day more) begin to be a source of delight to 
many people at a great distance ! Yesterday, for 
instance, there was with me a mother on her return 
from Yakutsk, where she had visited her exiled son 
of twenty-two years old, who in learning English 
feels an absolute want of English literature. There 



190 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

are other boys who share this study, and all will be 
quite comfortable when they receive from me the 
interesting Rest Evening and the Atlantic. 

"Yesterday, too, the Independent and the Public 
were sent to the professor of whom I wrote to my Alice. 
He is a fine man, highly educated. He does not wish 
to forget the foreign languages, and reads eagerly the 
English literature that is so scarce in Siberia, es- 
pecially among the moors and woods where we are 
settled. 

"The rest of the magazines are with me, but they 
do not serve me alone. Among the newcomers (who 
do not cease to arrive) some can do well enough to 
be able to profit by the rich stock in my room. And, 
making mistakes myself at every phrase, I teach 
them how to pronounce, remembering some principles 
that I got from Aunt Barrows, when in New York. 
What an excellent teacher, what an incomparable 
adviser, what a wise corrector she is ! 

"And myself, when tormented by the mischiefs 
surrounding us, I have recourse to the magazines, so 
richly illustrated, and spend hour after hour in read- 
ing, commenting, fancying about far-off people and 
countries. They give much material to think of, to 
laugh over. The pictures in some periodicals, and 
their covers, so splendidly painted, have been presents 
and surprises to a number of children (even boys of 
mine), whose bare log walls are ornamented with 
what makes the chamber much more cheerful. 

"I wished to make an album out of the quantity 
of postcards I get from America/ but seeing how 

^ I was in the habit of enclosing in my weekly letter to her a bunch of 
picture postcards, A. S. B, 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OP RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 191 

much pleasure it gives to every one to have some 
with him, some pretty things, I resolved to treat my 
poor guests by giving two, three, or four cards to 
every one. Some have sisters and brothers at home, 
and use the cards when writing to them. Others 
choose some subject to keep it on their wall, before 
their table. Many of them are living five or six in 
one room, little and dirty. These keep their cards 
in their pockets. When they are working hard, their 
better clothes are left at home, and the cards within. 
So much for the printed matter and pictures ; but I 
have myself a superior gift from your country, the 
letters showing so much interest in a far-off old woman, 
buried in a little wild spot, where she is destined to 
live henceforward — I will not say, destined to die. 

*'This correspondence enlarges to a high degree the 
world of my acquaintances, of my sympathies, and 
the traveling of my fancies. It engages me to feel 
myself as if living amidst a large society full of faces 
that are smiling and greeting me with the cordiality 
of true friends. 

"The little freedom left to me is restricted more 
and more. As the days begin to be short, I shall 
have very few hours to move about. All the evenings 
will be spent in my room, for I have been told that 
the spies following me everywhere are not to remain 
in the street during my visits, as they have till now, 
but are to penetrate into the courts of the people 
whom I visit. And as nobody is pleased to have 
spies looking into the windows, I prefer to remain 
alone in my own cabin. And when alone I try to call 
up all that is dear and agreeable. The mail vivifies 
my imagination, which transports me into a less rude. 



19^ LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

less rough environment. In October there will be no 
mail. The stock of magazines and some stuff for mak- 
ing shirts and trousers for the boys will fill my leisure. 

" August 31-September 13. 

"I am sure you have printed some articles on your 
visit to China and Siberia. If so, I should read them 
with interest. Four intelKgent women, such as you 
were, must have caught a lot of impressions during 
such a long journey, which afforded half a world to 
be examined. China and Russia were for a long 
time terra incognita to the rest of mankind. Never- 
theless there was a superstition against them, especially 
concerning the Russian people, who were known, even 
in 1905 (the year I was with you), as a conglomerate 
of hordes of Kirghis and Tartars. Nobody was willing 
to believe me, when I represented my folk as intelligent 
enough to desire improvement. Although in these 
last seven years a vast progress has been made in the 
historical beliefs and the political vigilance of these 
millions of minds, yet our inherited slowness follows 
us. 

"My greetings to all the inhabitants of your settle- 
ment, and God bless them ! " 

To Mrs. Barrows. September 26-October 13, 1911. 

"Once more and once more I have gone over the 
list of Jaeger goods, '^ and I get more and more af- 
frighted at the cost that will be paid for my sake. 
Too many things, too much dress ! I have not the 
habit. 

1 Mrs. Barrows had arranged to have a complete suit of Jaeger flannels 
sent to her. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 193 

September 30-Oetober 13. 

"When you described to me your summer walks j 
so richly ornamented with splendid scenery, and when 
I look at the cards and pictures coming to me from 
America, Switzerland, England, France, from the 
Caucasus or Central Asia (Tashkend), I am delighted, 
and I wonder how people feel if they live in such 
beautiful places. It is impossible to admire every 
time, for you will have no time to do anything else; 
but it is impossible to remain indifferent, either, when 
facing such a gallery of supreme pictures. 

"When I have before me a splendid view, I feel 
myself thrown into a beatitude akin to consternation, 
as if I were before a piece of witchcraft that turned a 
commonplace into a miracle. It only shows that our 
own country is lacking in scenery. Russia, except for 
some of its conquered territories, is a flat and monotonous 
land, where the eye searches for a new point, a relief, a 
more vivid color, a picturesque group of trees. Perhaps 
this equality of lines and tints, this ever-gray nature, has 
made us Russian people rather dull, with a tinge of mel- 
ancholy, our fancy always dwelling on a better world. 

"I believe that when they are free, our people will 
transform the country into a garden. The soil is 
rich and easy to cultivate, and beautiful forests, fields, 
and farms will cover the plains, while in the moun- 
tains, like those of the Urals and Siberia, there are 
plenty of materials proper for use. But now nothing 
prospers. The forests are destroyed, the rivers nearly 
impracticable on account of the sands, the soil badly 
tilled, and the buildings so ugly and uncomfortable 
that one might think they had been made so on pur- 
pose. No education, no good examples. 



194 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

"We see that the wild people are so faithful to their 
customs that, even when they are neighbors of more 
civilized races, they do not want to make any changes. 
But when they begin to accept some changes, and 
begin to acknowledge science, then it is not hard to 
introduce innovations. The ice is broken, the waves 
can flow freely and rapidly. 

"Especially is dirt abominable to one who had the 
good fortune to grow up in a clean and orderly home. 
Too much dirt is painful to a person who is above all 
delicacies. And when I think how good it will be in 
the future, I represent to myself all over the country a 
cleanness and neatness that will make it possible to 
sit, to walk, to eat in every place in the land. It is 
not nature itself, but the dirt and disorder which 
people themselves make, that is so disgusting. There- 
fore I do not like the life of the big towns, where there 
is so much dirt and so many bad smells. You will 
laugh at the topic of my letter. Yet it is not wondrous, 
for before my eyes are hedges, palings, dilapidated 
cabins and barns and stalls, all these black with time 
and rain, and covered with a cloudy, heavy gray 
roof that seems never to be sunny. And yet we are 
pleased with rain and wet, fearing the approach of a 
fiercer enemy, which will imprison us for half a year. 

"We have now some young women, winning their 
bread by sewing linen and clothes. An American 
fashion magazine serves them very well." 

Sometimes she cheered her friends by writing gay 
bits of vers lihre on postcards : 

"Helena dearest, don't be sorry, 
Soon, very soon, thanks to your goodness. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 195 

I have my bath in my own room. 

And soon again instead of hnen 

I shall be wrapped in Jaeger's wool. 

The samovar will wait on table. 

The Chinese tea will smell the best ; 

And your old friend, renewed, reyounged. 

Absorbs the sugar, milk and bread. 

She could have many, many others 

Of delicacies of the world. 

But the old stomach is so trained 

That can't endure no sorts of dainties. ^ 

But for the space, and light, and air — 

I have them for the rest of life. 

Dearest friend ! 
I will be merciful and never more 
Write in verses. Forgive me." 

To Miss Blackwell. October 4-17. 

"You see me dancing, 
You see me prancing ! 
The Jaegers are coming, 
I have the notice ! 

In some days there will be in my new dwelling a shop 
of clothes and beautiful things ! And now, my daugh- 
ter, you must be at ease. Your old Catherine will be 
soon like a cocoon, from head to foot accoutered with 
wool. No frost of Siberia can hurt her more." 

To Miss Blackwell. (Undated) 

" I have read *The Ballad of the Brave Man' over 
and over, and wondered why you could not write all you 
know about your mother, that blessed and holy woman, 
in similar ballads ? Every act and circumstance of 
her life could be chanted as a psalm. It might be done 
in two parts : (1) a short and compact chronology of 



196 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

the events of her life; (2) a thick book composed of 
many ballads, describing her acts, her experiences, 
her sufferings and success, with all the love and admira- 
tion you keep in your heart for this woman, who re- 
mains till now a unique example of energy and clever- 
ness, devotion and love. 

"Be not afraid to profane a great cause or a great 
character by setting it forth in a simple style, full of 
plainness, and feelings of tender love. Everything 
great is sympathetic with what is natural and comes 
from the depths of our souls. 

" I often ask myself how I would write the biography 
of a great spirit, and I always feel that not the details 
of the material side of the hero would prosper, but 
that only the mental, the spiritual world which was 
his own, could flourish under my pen. One must write 
as for himself, with earnestness and freedom of feel- 
ing, as the bird sings its song. When we read the old 
ballads, the sayings, legends, psalms and descriptions 
of the lives of saintly people, we are more touched and 
impressed than when we read very serious accounts 
of the world and the acts of any famous character. 
The personification of Lucy Stone is a spiritual one 
now, since the present day public can only imagine 
her being and her face, the more beautiful and attrac- 
tive for not being set forth in a rude and rough account, 
which suffers always through being dry, notwith- 
standing the endeavor of the writer to make it living 
and gracious. 

*' In recent years we have had in our magazines many 
memoirs, biographical sketches and descriptions of 
the most remarkable Russians who have served the 
cause of their people. And the best are those that 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 197 

show US the soul, the tastes, moral and spiritual, of 
the person described, his behavior among his friends 
and in his family; in a word, all that made up his 
inner world, the complex of the soul, that remains in 
the reader's memory like a celestial light." 

To Doctor Tchaykovsky, November 10, 1911. 

*'I wanted to write you a cheerful and jolly letter, 
as both these states of mind are not foreign to me. 
On the contrary, it is a long time since I have laughed 
as much as since my return to the world from solitary 
confinement ; and here I often laugh at every trifle, 
and look lovingly at the few youngsters who like to 
take care of me, and whom I like to see about me. 
But just on account of these youngsters I am suffering 
a good deal of discomfort at present, not to say sorrow. 

"From the very beginning it was known that every 
one calling on me was entered in the 'book of life.' 
In time it came to the notice of the police supervisor 
that some called on me seldom, others more frequently ; 
that some did not stay long, others remained to chop 
wood, sweep out the rooms, go for provisions, or else 
to work at some foreign language, or sit and wait until 
the time came to close the chimney with its heavy 
flue-plates ; or else to take the old lady out for an air- 
ing, or to the bath-house and back. Particularly there 
was a young man living within a mile and a half of the 
town, beyond the Lena, supporting himself by odd 
jobs, with a little help from his relatives. He came 
every day after dinner for two or three hours ; he was 
very kind to me, and very attentive to all my house- 
hold needs. He got into trouble once because he had 
given me a ride in his boat (it was only in the beginning 



198 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

of September), and now lie is being constantly reminded 
that he has no right to remain in the city after 8 p.m. 
I have already told you that only those few exiles who 
have obtained special permission live in Kirensk itself, 
or those who are under special surveillance, like 'poor' 
me ; the rest have to live on the other side of the rivers, 
and go a long way to their work. But as there is a 
dock on the other side as well, many work there in 
Glotow's steamboat shops, and in the town there are 
Gromov's work-shops. 

** Well, about a month ago, another young man came, 
an assistant surgeon. He got employment as a car- 
penter at the city wharf, quicldy made a success of 
his trade, and was already in hopes that by the end of 
winter he would master all the secrets of carpentry 
and house-painting, and in the spring would open 
a shop of his own. Being inclined to do favors for 
close friends, he called on me daily after his work and 
gave me massage; in the afternoon he would call to 
take his scanty portion of dinner, so as not to have to 
go a mile and a half to attend to me. It appears that 
this sort of laborious life was considered a crime : the 
district police captain has taken away his passport (a 
yearly one for travelling over the district of Kirensk, 
which he had just obtained) , then arrested him, impris- 
oned him, and on Saturday he is sending him away 
escorted by gendarmes to the Mukhtuiskaya district, 
700 versts down the Lena nearer to Yakutsk, a starv- 
ing settlement where there is no work, deserted by its 
own population, and filled with convict settlers who 
think it less dangerous to escape from there and be 
caught again than to remain there without work and 
without bread. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 199 

*'Then again, yesterday and to-day they are sum- 
moning other persons also to the poHce for examina- 
tion, a short hst of seven or eight names, alleged to 
be people particularly intimate with me. On another 
list all those who visit my hut are recorded, and what 
will be done with thena I cannot imagine, unless they 
station an armed guard to drive away all those who 
step upon my grass-plots. Aside from the fact that 
I like people generally, that a feeling of gratitude is 
deeply implanted in me, that distressed young lives 
are particularly affecting to me, so that I am simply 
ashamed to be the cause of anybody's misfortune or 
trouble, I see that complete loneliness threatens me 
within a short time, either in the form of a hut prison 
here in Kirensk, or somewhere in Bulun, on the Arctic 
Ocean, where they send exiles for complete isolation. 
What they are afraid of I cannot understand; I only 
know that I would rather stay in Bulun with white 
bears than to see how, on account of me, they are perse- 
cuting other people and depriving them of bread and 
of the most necessary freedom. They are even going 
to send away the sick, so that they may not pass by 
me on their way to the hospital. 

"All their tricks are the fruits of an idle imagina- 
tion, and the attractive prospect of honors and promo- 
tion. But how can others be expected to endure all 
these pleasant jokes ? I personally have been used to 
these conditions during all my long life; nothing sur- 
prises me nor will surprise me. But young hearts 
cannot feel themselves as well, and every unexpected, 
unreasonable blow baffles them, and leads to an enor- 
mous loss of energy. It is a good thing, however, 
that people are not angry with me, whence come all 



200 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

these evil machinations, spreading out net after net — 
plague take them ! 

"Send me not only magazines, but books. There is 
a common library here, but through the preponderance 
of foolish voters it has passed into the hands of care- 
less people, so that now it will be either ruined entirely 
or reorganized in a more or less remote future. Since 
this mess was made before my time, I do not intend 
to be responsible for it, the more so as I should be 
compelled to deal with various antagonistic interests. 
Therefore I prefer to receive the books myself, and to 
give them to whomever it seems best, keeping order 
and system. Do not think that I am greedy for myself 
personally; I do not read so very much, only what is 
necessary ; but young brains need food. 

" Now the boasting begins : To-day at last came the 
package with my prison belongings (coat, dresses, etc.) . 
Taking into account things sent by you and gifts re- 
ceived on the road here, it appears that I have half a 
dozen 'costumes,' one finer than the other — such 
wealth as I have never before accumulated since I 
was born. I have hung them around the walls, and 
I look at them and think : ' What shall I do with all 
these things, even if I should order a wardrobe ! ' And 
as for handkerchiefs, gloves, little rags that have been 
sent — so many have accumulated that I can't imagine 
where to put them all. To my relief, your gingham 
will go for shirts for the boys (I intend to cut as many 
as four out of 15 arshin). 

"The new handkerchiefs I have given away to neigh- 
bors who have been kind to me, and everything that 
is old I have kept for myself, except the beautiful 
blanket, which I hide under my pillow in the day time, 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 201 

and at night spread over my ordinary every-day one, 
which has seen many things in its time. Even my old 
cloak is about ready to go into retirement. I have 
acquired two wadded coats and a few warm skirts ; 
in a word, enough to get married on (such a bride!), 
and the people are still dissatisfied, and are always 
grumbling: 'A fur coat, grandma, a fur coat, by all 
means a fur coat.' I will show them a fur coat ! Soon 
I shall have a bear skin for my feet. So far, nothing 
but a calf skin from Yakutsk lies under my table as 
a beautiful rug, and warms my feet, which are clothed 
in felt shoes and rubbers. The hut would be good in 
every respect but that there is a draft from the floor 
and the cold comes in. But we shall overcome that, 
with the bear's help. 

"Heigh-ho ! my life is nothing but a genuine carnival. 

"Abundance of earthly gifts, and the sincere love of 
kind friends more than the wickedness of the enemies ; 
so that the cup of joy outweighs that of bitterness. 
Just now, for instance, I have returned from my walk 
carrying in my hands a package of pies ; one made of 
fish, another of carrots ; — got them without paying 
a penny, and they took such pleasure in wrapping them 
up in a newspaper ! And if my clothes have to be 
washed, kind women are found (from our own circle) 
who will take them and wash them. But I myself 
like to freeze my washing out on the line in front of 
my window, 

"Oh, what a great surprise my hut would be to 
Boris and Marusya ! Merely the heating of my little 
stove and baking potatoes in it would fill up many hours 
with the most pleasant occupation. The tin of which 
my samovar is made even reflects the moonlight 



S02 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

during the night, and its bright shining is the cause of 
no little admiration. And the small, queer cupboard, 
turned on one side, — that is my pantry ; and my 
small windows, consisting of a lot of little pieces of 
glass ; and finally a hole in the wall opposite the stove, 
through which sometimes the bright sunbeams fall 
on the chips of wood scattered upon the stove. This 
hole is open, and many eyes have looked through it, 
how many that are not known, nobody has any idea. 
But neither I nor anybody else objects, since, owing 
to these ventilators, the air in the house is fine, and no 
one ever has a headache." 

George Lazareff to Miss Blackwell. (Undated) 

*'I was so glad that Baboushka had found in the 
assistant-surgeon Rogestwensky a very useful and 
devoted man, who came every day to bandage her 
swollen legs. But the local authorities found he was 
too earnest and too frequent in his visits to her. Sud- 
denly he was seized and sent to the remotest and 
worst hole of the district. She was in despair. 

'"What for.?' she cried. 'Miserable executioners! 
Send me to the devil, if you like, but why do you tor- 
ture my poor, innocent, and generous friends and com- 
rades, all those who approach m.e?' 

"Everybody who came to see her the guards 
stopped, and asked them who they were and what they 
came for. It made so much trouble, not only for her 
but for her landlord, that nobody liked to let a room to 
her. It was for this reason that she lived so long in 
a miserable half-rotten hut, which she liked because 
it was solitary, so that the guards did not bother the 
hut-owner — the hut standing apart, with the windows 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 203 

looking on the snowy desert. For her health's sake 
I insisted that she should find a more comfortable 
lodging. After long consideration, she decided at 
last to do it. She gave me tv/o weighty objections. 
The first was that the more comfortable lodging 
might spoil her character and definitely corrupt her 
spirit. She would live in a comfortable house of three 
neatly furnished rooms, — salons, as she called them ; 
meanwhile some of the other exiles, after a hard and 
long day's work (if they were lucky enough to have 
work) could hardly find a hole in the warm stall of 
some native to spend the night. If she could take 
some of her poor comrades into her lodging to live with 
her, how happy she would be ! Of course there is no 
legal objection to it, but her experience with her com- 
rade. Assistant-surgeon Rogestwensky, to whom she 
wished to give a permanent lodging in her former 
miserable hut, had taught her that such generosity 
on her part would cost her co-dweller very dear : he 
would be removed altogether from Kirensk. Mean- 
w^hile she badly needs the assistance of her comrade 
exiles, who love and adore her as their m.other, as the 
model of human devotion and self-sacrifice. 

"In her last letter she writes me that she has changed 
her lodging at last, and is now settled in her three 
neatly furnished 'salons.' And she finds her expecta- 
tion is fulfilled; she feels herself gradually becoming 
corrupted. The criminal thought is knocking at her 
mind, how nice it would be to make a bath-room out 
of one of her pretty 'salons' and to furnish it with a 
comfortable bath-tub, where she could warm her sick 
legs ! One of her comrades, being an expert, is ready 
to realize this ideal, and is going to install a home-made 



204 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

tin bath. I hope she is now so corrupted that in the 
next letter she will tell me of the realization of this 
great enterprise. She cherishes the idea that her com- 
rades will find an opportunity to wash their poor bodies 
free of charge from time to time, and to enjoy them- 
selves in the most American style. You see, with 
money in hand it is possible even in the Russian hells 
to get some comfort. 

"You know how strictly she is watched. They fear 
her escape from Siberia. Money sent to her all at 
once in considerable quantity would excite suspicion. 
The same sum of money divided into parts, and sent 
regularly and periodically, would seem of no impor- 
tance to the local authorities. There are many com- 
mon convicts who have rich relatives and receive 
much money from them. We could easily send to 
Baboushka $100. a month, if we had it, but only on 
condition that it was sent regularly. 

"There is no person in the world who can prevent 
her from doing what she considers her duty. Above 
all things, she bothers herself in visiting sick native 
people, in giving them good advice as to how to feed 
the children, and so on. Very often she carries them 
her milk, part of her own daily food. In answer to my 
reproaches for her unreasonable philanthropy, she 
mocked at me, saying that I was greatly mistaken in 
my appreciation of her conduct. She was a very sly 
old woman : by giving a trifle to these poor little 
wretches around her, in return she got more from them 
for herself. They are so stupid, she says, as to bring 
her all the sweets they can get in that arid region ; 
butter, different kinds of berries, eggs, little cakes, and 
SO on. They are stupid, because she is only oncj and 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 205 

cannot give them much, but they are hundreds, and 
httle by httle, bit by bit, they bring her a great deah 
And they help her with so much zeal and love (in return 
for her pretended attention), that she cannot help 
accepting the gifts. 'So, in the long run, I am the 
gainer,' she concluded. 'Light gains make heavy 
purses.' In a word, she is a really incorrigible old 
woman. However, by force of her indomitable energy 
and good-natured character she is spreading every- 
where an atmosphere of consolation among the suffer- 
ing people. 

"In my opinion, the agitation in America at present 
in behalf of Baboushka, old, ill, and almost dying, 
will have a good effect in the mitigation of her lot. 
They might let her live in some warmer town of Si- 
beria." 

"November 1-13, 1911. 

" All my beloved friends ! 

"Like a queen in a palace, like a princess in an arm- 
chair, like a scholar before a large table, surrounded 
by magazines, papers, letters, and a lot of beautiful 
post-cards is sitting your old Catherine, proud and 
happy, strong and well. All October she was mute, 
enjoying her new dwelling, where she is as comfortable 
as one can imagine. A large room, divided into four 
chambers, represents a house that would suit a person 
of much greater pretensions. It would take a great 
deal of inspiration to depict all the benefits of my new 
apartment. This letter will announce only : (1) 
Having space enough to walk from one corner of my 
house to another (passing through three chambers 
and a line of 30 feet) — I remain at home all the time. 



206 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

having no desire to take cold and to get the influenza. 
The same cause forced me to order a bath, which will 
stand in one of my chambers and will be heated by a 
little engine, attached to one of its ends, so that the 
traveling of half a mile to take a bath (as last winter) 
is excluded from my pastime. 

"There is only one brick stove in the centre of the 
four rooms. It is large, and without the aid of the 
old cobbler it would be difficult to get it ready. This 
old friend of mine returned to his offices near my per- 
son with the return of cold weather. Every morning 
he is there to bring wood, to get water, to clean and to 
brush all my apartments. Many chairs, many tables, 
one commode, and a kitchen with a fireplate (an iron 
disc on which all can be cooked) ... all that depends 
on his activity and zeal. We have a samovar now, and 
drink tea together, but as for cooking, we don't occupy 
ourselves with such trifles. My various friends bring 
me very often every sort of food. 

" (2) I wish to tell you what I received during Octo- 
ber from America, that great and benevolent country 
that fills my existence with surprises, caresses and en- 
dowments of all kinds. Many letters were received, 
and many cards. The magazines reached me safely, 
and were much read by myself and by many other 
exiles, who, learning that I have a lot of them, ask for 
them from various parts of Siberia. I send them, 
being proud and content. The two excellent books 
from Chicago, with a letter from my Starr, gave me 
real joy, for I longed for news of her. All my visitors 
are surprised to see such a quantity of printed and 
written riches. I only smile and enjoy it in my heart. 
But all the Russian material, except the letters, is 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSL\N REVOLUTION 207 

immediately distributed among the visitors, who 
come from several near-by places, and take it to be 
read by all the comrades in the vicinity. They keep 
robbing me to the very last, and when I see anything 
very interesting, I hastily stick it under my pillow, 
and when alone I hurry to read it, before I am robbed 
of it. But my English literature is with me. Never 
one little scrap of English printed paper has been lost 
or destroyed by my hand. One of my tables is cov- 
ered with heaps of books, and magazines, and the 
Evening Post, before being sent to Yakutsk and other 
parts of East Siberia. Life and Labor ^ is my favorite, 
and the National Geographic Magazine enjoys the 
favor of everyone for its splendid pictures. One young 
man is going to photograph them and make them fit 
to be shown in the magic lantern. 

"You are all working too hard: meetings, readings, 
visitings, writing and establishing new and new settle- 
ments and different places of help and education — 
it is too much for the same persons, already tired and 
exhausted by a work of twenty or thirty years. Now 
you must only survey the work of young people, and 
bring them up to be able to take your places, and to 
continue what you began. 

"There is a change concerning my custody: now 
there are four spies going around my house and look- 
ing into my windows. Two accompany me when I go 
out. This escort is so disgusting that I have no wish 
to walk out of doors. What they are afraid of, I don't 
know ! I see only that they think me able to vanish 
like a cloud before their eyes." 

' 1 The organ of the National Woman's Trade Union League, edited by 
Alice Henry. 



208 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

To Mrs. Barrows. November 8-21, 1911. 

" Do you know where the crabs are wintering ? ^ 
I see you do, while examining my new wardrobe, 
brought to me from the post office yesterday after- 
noon. It was a glorious apparition, which enchanted 
all the boys that were occupied with the matter; for 
the package was big and heavy. The goods were so 
well wrapped that everything is as fresh as if just out 
of the shop. Even the paper and the cardboard are 
safe enough to be used by our bookbinders. Every- 
one touched the stuff, and everyone was sincerely glad 
to know that grandmother will be clad as warmly as 
one could desire. I am sure the whole winter there 
will be examination and appreciation. It is the first 
time in my life that I have had such beautiful things 
for myself. This very letter I am writing enveloped 
in the delicious overcoat, fearing no frosts, weather 
or storm. The old cobbler, Platon, my faithful ser- 
vant when sober, laughed and cheered, examining the 
big shoes I received, and did not dare to touch with 
his rough hands the exquisite Jaeger's linen displayed 
on my table. 'Oh,' said he, * did your friends in 
America get the photograph of your old cabin ? They 
would be as much astonished to live in it as we should 
be to wear such beautiful linen ! ' 

"Everything of best material and skilfully made. 
Even the duties were paid. So I got a quantity of 
foreign goods without paying a kopek for them. All 
this, thanks to persons who not only know where the 
crabs are wintering, but who can arrange the matter 

^ A Russian proverb concerning people who know where to find the best 
things. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 209 

SO finely that the receiver has no trouble ; he has only 
to take and to use. 

, "Yours for ever." 

To Miss Blackwell. November 20-December 3, 1911. 

"Certainly the women of the United States are 
remarkable for their energy and cleverness ! The 
campaign carried on in California by the suffragists 
is a whole ejpopee in the life of your people. It is a 
beautiful example for countries where the political 
institutions allow people to act with an endeavor so 
largely developed. 

"The portraits of Miss Addams and Miss Black- 
well were such a charming surprise to me, such wel- 
come guests among many others, many beautiful 
women ! In my room, large and convenient, I received 
them all heartily, and, sitting alone during the long 
evening, in a corner near the stove, I held a long con- 
versation with both girls on a series of interesting topics 
which occupy my mind. 

"November 29. For instance, since I got the leaflets 
about the work done by Denison House, I thought 
very often of the great difficulty of fulfilling as well 
as one wishes all the enterprises we take upon us in 
doing so many things at once. So much hard work 
and such large outlays do not show to the world the 
results of a sane and clever education of children, 
which question is the most serious among those that 
concern our race. And I am sure that this question 
can be solved only outside of the life of the big towns. 

"The children that have grown up far from contact 
with country life, from all that composes so-called 
* nature/ are only half of a human being in its com- 



210 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

pleteness. The children of the well-to-do have the 
possibility of traveling and seeing many sides of 
country life. And yet they are not (on the whole) 
so richly endowed as the children of farmers. As 
for the poor children, they grow up in the large cities 
like little apes, never thinking about the beautiful and 
marvellous scenery of the great world. All our great 
men (in science, literature and social life) are natives 
of the provinces ; all the best scholars, the most active 
workers in every kind of social activity are people who 
grew up outside of the capital cities and large towns. 
There are exceptions, as always, but they are so few 
that I could not cite an example. In a country as 
free as yours, why not make experiments, why not 
establish some institutions (settlements) for poor 
children and orphans in some wholesome country dis- 
trict, where all this large family would constitute one 
farming association ? The little ones would learn how 
to work, the biggest would study and work at the same 
time; several handicrafts might flourish, too. The 
arts would be an every-day luxury. Such an institu- 
tion would be a splendid proof of the possibility of 
producing a race of men able to be useful in every 
place and in every state of life. 

"I do not say that the settlements you have now are 
not necessary. I only wish that your women might 
show the world what is the best mode of education 
while we are living under the conditions of this century. 

"December 4-17, 1911. 
*'I have a telegram that I am to receive a pelisse 
and a watch. Never was I so rich. 

"Pray tell Helena I embrace her from my soul. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 211 

Her kindness, her delicacy in connection with every 
one is remarkable. I love people in general, but good 
people are my delight, and I don't need to see them, 
to know them personally, in order to love them sin- 
cerely and strongly. 

"It is wonderful to me how much your women can 
do, and have time to enjoy parties and visiting. Full 
of energy. 

"I never heard of Isabel's son before, and was sure 
she had only one daughter. I am very glad she has a 
son; it is a great comfort to have such a near friend 
and companion." 

To Miss Dudley. December 15-25, 1911. 

"Our dear Euphemia and you will send me some 
cards. Very glad ! They give such great amusement 
to my young friends. They are fond of symbolic 
pictures. The Slavonic mind is very poetical; and 
all that recalls the beauty and greatness of the world 
is eagerly sought. 

"But the goodness of my American friends grows 
greater and greater, and I am afraid I shall be spoiled. 
Yesterday the mail brought me a little bag in which 
I found violet soap, ribbon dental cream, violet talcum 
powder, cold cream, and a bottle for hot water. This 
reminded me of Lucy Smith's present, which I found 
once on my table when I occupied her room. I would 
be so happy to embrace this very angel of a girl, and 
take her on my lap, and kiss her over and over." 

" December 16. 
"Where will you go, what new work is to torment 
you farther.? Dear friend, it is enough of sacrifice; 



212 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

you must live as long as possible, and not wear out 
your health. It is a desolate situation to know one's 
best friends on the verge of peril, and to be sure they 
never will take care of their safety ! I very often fear 
to hear that your health, that of Aunt Isabel, that of 
our Alice, is declining. Many persons in your country 
are dear to me. But you three were especially good 
to me, and so kindly good that I became familiar with 
you, as if we had understood and loved each other 
from the beginning of the world. I am never sure 
I shall not hear something bad concerning your health. 
Don't think I am in the same condition as you are. 
I do not strain. I have been working all my life like 
a Southern ox (such as our peasants labor with) that 
goes his pace, no faster, no slower, never tired, but 
never much at once. Consequently my strength is 
better conserved. The work of all three of you is, on 
the contrary, a work of race-horses, with the great dif- 
ference that race-horses are well nourished, very well 
looked after, and tenderly nursed, while you three 
run without rest, and without that necessary comfort 
of soul which can be gained only by a leisure which 
occurs often and gives us time to collect our thoughts, 
feelings, impressions, and conclusions. I could not be 
myself without such conditions." 



CHAPTER XIV 

George Lazareff to Miss Blaekwell. December 20, 1911. 

*' There are two classes of exiles in Siberia. Those 
who have been banished by administrative order, 
without trial, are sent for terms of not more than five 
years to the remotest part of the empire, as dangerous 
persons, and are temporarily deprived of all their civil 
rights. They are given a money allowance by the 
government, the amount varying with their rank and 
with their place of exile, which they may not leave. 
They are under constant surveillance. 

"The second class of exiles have been tried and 
banished for life, and are permanently deprived of 
their civil rights. They receive no money from the 
government, but after they have stayed for six months 
in an appointed place, they are entitled by law to 
receive a passport authorizing them to live where they 
please in their district, and to travel about and look for 
work. 

"Baboushka belongs to the second class, but she is 
illegally deprived of all its privileges, and has to bear 
the worst features of the treatment of both classes. 
She gets no money from the government, yet she is 
not allowed to choose her place of residence, nor to 
travel about, nor even to go freely through the streets 
of the miserable little town of Kirensk; and she is 
watched continually by police spies." 

213 



214 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OP RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

Picture card ^ to Miss Blackwell. December 30, 
1911-January 12, 1912. 

"This is the greatest festival of the Yakuts; the 
young horses will be killed, roasted, and eaten. 

"A beautiful fur coat and a clock with a bell have 
been received. I remember Miss Wald said something 
about it. My thanks to her. The Christmas was a 
merry one. Nobody was hungry nor cold, — I mean 
my company. 

"La Follette's autobiography is beautiful, — a splen- 
did man. 'The Eleventh Hour' ^ that I got to-day is 
dear to my heart. Julia Ward Howe was a wonder." 

To Mrs. Barrows. January 5-18, 1912. 

"The Survey was received, and your article on the 
prisons read first of all. If you knew all the truth about 
our places of confinement, what horrible scenes would 
engross your descriptions of what occurs there, where 
many, many thousands of our best youths are dying ! 

"January 11-24. 
" Already your letter with the news about the death 
of our Durland has come to me, and this letter of mine 
is not finished. Why ? Never alone ! never alone ! 
I do not complain, for I feel and understand that the 
constant visitation of our people is the only good that 
can be done. From 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. I must give all 
my attention to the needs of others, after which 
pastime I am tired, and able only to read papers or 
articles. Thanks to the money I have received from 

^ The picture on the card shows a crowd of Siberian natives standing 
around some shaggy horses. 

2 By Mrs. Howe's daughter, describing her last years. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 215 

my American friends, I eat well, I have had many 
comfortable novelties. And with my Jaeger clothes, my 
pelisse, and a young lady who takes me every day at 
noon, I go out to walk and breathe the pure, fresh air. 
"Durland was a good heart. What a pity! When 
I see one of my boys failing, I suffer much. I scold 
them often and hard. I never knew you had a son 
before you wrote it me this autumn. How glad I am 
he is a good boy ! Mabel is a noble soul. I remember 
her, and her husband too, though I saw him only once. 
Every corner of your residence in New York I remember 
as well as if I had seen it yesterday." 

Doctor Tchaykovsky to Miss Blackwell. January 20, 

1912 

"Baboushka writes : 

"'I should be quite contented had I by my side 
always a dear female face and a kind heart. For an 
old woman like myself, often ailing, there is nothing 
more soothing than a caressing female hand. To help 
in the bath, in the bed, to hand food or drink, to sew 
or to cut — she could do all, my darling ; but I have 
no such darling, and there is no chance to get one 
here. It is true, it would be very lonely for her to 
stay here with an old woman like me, always exacting 
correctness, economy, foresight, and other virtues. 
If I could have her at least temporarily, just to stay 
with me, so that I could feel by my side one who is 
quite near to me; some one who could take care of 
me, instead of my always taking care of others. It 
is true there are many here who remember me, who 
try to serve me or to bring me something nice, but all 
this is done occasionally, in a hap-hazard way, and it 



216 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

often happens that I have either too much of every- 
thing, or nothing at all. There is no constant eye 
watching how I behave myself. One often needs to 
get something, to send somewhere, to run to the post, 
to the shop, to an outdoor cupboard, etc. Of course 
one could do all that one's self. But I am not what I 
used to be. In short, I am too old.' 

"And again on December 12-25 she writes: *What 
I said before about a female friend, of course refers 
to one who would not be worried by staying with an 
old woman, who would be prepared to stay here, say 
a year, or at least half a year; would forgive me my 
grumbling, and exacting correctness and economy (but 
not greediness or meanness, of course) in everything. 
Where one could find such a treasure, I don't know. 
On the other hand, it would be as useful for her to pass 
through a school of care and attention to her neigh- 
bors, for it would not be of myself alone that she would 
have to take care here, but of many others. 

"'I received yesterday twenty rubles, and at once 
bought butter and sugar — the greatest expenses 
here. It is remarkable how particular our boys are. 
Those who have work or a position will not touch food 
in my hut, but only those who are unemployed." 

To her friends at Wellesley College. February 10, 

1912. 

"Wellesley College gave me one of the greatest 
pleasures I ever experienced. When I was there, I 
found one of the most beautiful institutions I ever 
saw. The establishment itself is perfect, furnished 
with all the improvements of the last word of pedagogy. 
But what charmed me most of all was the body of 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 217 

teachers and pupils. When, after the few words I 
spoke, I sat with my cup of tea in the salon, where 
a hundred dear young faces looked at me with friend- 
ship, with sympathy, I felt so cheerful and familiar 
with all that surrounded me, I had at once so many 
words to say, so many thoughts to express, so many 
feelings to discharge, that it was very hard for me to 
leave the dear society when it was announced that the 
horses were at the door. 

*'If words came as readily as ideas and feelings, I 
could say ten hundred kindly things. 

"'I would be true, for there are those who trust me; 
I would be pure, for there are those who care ; 
I would be strong, for there is much to suffer ; 
I would be brave, for there is much to dare.' 



<C ( ' 



I would be a friend to all ... I would look up 
— and laugh — and love — and lift.' 

"'As long as we do not surrender the ideal of our 
life, all is right.' 

"'Is thy burden hard and heavy .f* Do thy steps 
drag wearily ? Help to bear thy brother's burden . . .' 

Be noble ! and the nobleness which lies 
In other men, sleeping but never dead. 
Will rise in majesty to meet thine own.' 

When courage fails and faith burns low. 

And men are timid grown, 
Hold fast thy loyalty, and know 

That truth still moveth on.' 

"'Kind hearts are the gardens, 
Kind thoughts are the roots. 
Kind words are the blossoms, 
Kind deeds are the fruits,' " 



218 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

"These words are in 'The Calendar of Friendship/ 
received from a dear friend. I quote these golden 
words not only for their beauty, but also I have ex- 
perienced them all my life as an irrevocable truth. 

"After my visit to Wellesley I received many tokens 
of friendship from its inhabitants. 

"I pray you both, elder and young ladies, pardon 
me for my long silence. I recognize my fault and feel 
ashamed. Oh ! my ignorance of your beautiful lan- 
guage makes me miserable very often. For I desire 
to speak with you, to correspond with the American 
women whom I esteem and admire now more than 
ever. Their energy in all they undertake is wonderful, 
and is an example to the women of all the world. 

"Accept my greetings, lovely ladies, and pardon 

"Your friend 

" Catherine Breshkovsky." 

To Miss Dudley. February, 1912. (Written on the 
back of a picture postcard representing Jesus 
before Pilate) 

/"Pilate, after having heard what Jesus said to him, 
asked with a smile of doubt, 'And what is truth .f^' 
So many and many people, wishing to preserve their 
independence of action in things that flatter their 
tastes and the weak sides of their characters, make 
the same suggestion, in the hope of withdrawing them- 
selves from any responsibility towards the requests of 
humanity. And yet the truth is born with us, and 
lies in the souls of all sane people, and teaches us to 
love our fellow sisters and brothers, and to do to them 
the best we desire for ourselves. And we see that only 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 219 

those who fulfill this law of our nature are sincerely 
esteemed, and happy even in their distresses." 

To Miss Blackwell. February 24-March 8, 1912. 

"Women's enfranchisement, after the Chinese rev- 
olution, is in my opinion the greatest event of our 
century, as regards political reform. For I am sure 
the enfranchisement of women must be followed by a 
store of new reforms for the welfare of humanity. 

"Yes, this century from its very beginning has been 
full of miraculous events. One can live with plenty 
of sensations without even taking part in all these 
beautiful evolutions, otherwise than by surveying and 
digesting the events which cover the earth at this 
moment. I feel as if I were in the very middle of all 
the perturbations which threaten to overthrow all 
the old prejudices and evils. I think it is thanks to 
this faculty of pursuing in my imagination the course 
of life in general that I conserve that verve of character 
which is familiar to me. And now, besides the possi- 
bility of following the course of progress, I have] the 
good fortune to have many relays of young people 
around me, which makes me mother of an infinite 
family, whose members are in a state of everlasting 
circulation. This state of things keeps my mind 
awake. I stay like a watchman on my post, over- 
seeing on every side. And when we add to all this 
my personal material welfare, and the possibility of 
furnishing what is most necessary to those who are 
in need, one can understand why I do not feel cast 
down or mournful. Not one of our exiles is so richly 
off as I. And George Kennan is quite right in saying 
that he found me in Selenginsk lacking all the com- 



220 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

forts I enjoy now. And my- luxury of to-day comes from 
America. For my Russian friends would not be able 
to send me so much money and such beautiful things. 

" This month is a cruel one : cold and wind day and 
night. The winter is so long and unrelenting (frost 
and snow the whole eight months) that we forget the 
feeling of better weather, and the summer, the two 
months of warmth, seems to us a far-off dream. 

"Professor Ely and his wife! I see them both at 
a party, or a musical evening, when the young miss, 
his bride then, stood on a tabaret and spoke nice 
things, and we stood around her. I recollect, too, 
how angry Mr. Ely was with me, when, confused, I 
could not speak on my life in Siberia and at Kara. 
Everything about the Americans I remember as 
clearly as if it were yesterday. First, I was eager to 
see, to hear, to understand the characters, customs, 
all the ways of life ; secondly, I was so pleased to find 
a friendly reception, so pleased ! To this day I am 
always surprised to be welcomed, beloved, cherished. 
Therefore every token of friendship and love is to me 
like a new happiness in my life. I have always wished 
and strained to deserve my own respect, and that of 
honest people, but I look upon this as a duty common 
to every rational being. 

"I am afraid Lucy Smith is gone. What a sacred 
heart it was ! A very saint. I am afraid about Helena, 
too. She is always tormenting herself with the thought 
that she does too little, giving all her life for others, 
and yet imagining herself not worthy enough. I do 
not think so about myself. I look at it in this way : 
Everyone must endeavour to be useful, but nobody is 
obliged to do more than he can. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 221 

"Oh, your old Kitty is very seldom tired of life, 
and she needs but a sparkle of light to feel herself as 
young and strong as ever." 

To Miss Blackwell. March 14-27, 1912. 

"If this were not such a cruel climate, which uses 
up so much strength and expense for food and cloth- 
ing, we would make many improvements in our life, 
for there are many skilful, strong and clever people 
among us ; but without money, tools or provision, it 
will take many years of persevering efforts to obtain 
any amelioration. All you earn during the short 
summer, you eat up during the long winter, when the 
country presents an immense bare wilderness. No 
plants except the big trees, no birds, no movement 
from place to place, except the mail post, speeding on 
six or seven sledges, with two horses to each. The 
caravan runs very fast, or fast enough, considering 
the state of our roads, always very bad. The little 
bells ring far and loud, and all the inhabitants, espe- 
cially our boys, run towards the post office, where they 
receive the same answer : 'Not ready, — to-morrow.' 
It is absurd to see how slow the employees of all 
Russian offices are. And they are accustomed to 
treat the public like intruders, that have no right to 
ask. 

"The last two months my health has been much 
better. The clothes you sent me have much to do 
with this, for I am never cold now. You have much 
to do, too, with my present position. I am sure my 
enemies will not show themselves too cruel towards 
me. Some time ago, one of my friends wrote me that 
she was trying to have me removed to a place further 



222 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

south. I forbade her to do it, and got for answer : 
*Your prohibition came too late. I had already asked 
for your transfer to a less cold place, and received the 
reply : "Let her thank God that she is in Kirensk and 
not farther north."' Yes, and I think I should be 
farther north but for the tokens of friendship I get 
from your country. 

"In some days it will be Easter. I am already pre- 
paring pastry and meat for my poor guests and my- 
self. Now that my excellent Platon is too often 
' unwell ', I have taken a young girl into the house ; she 
dwells with me and serves me. Fifteen years old, 
she could not read or write, so I am teaching her. 
Then she sews clothes for herself, and makes flowers 
to ornament her parents' home. She is a Siberian 
native, of Slavonic race. But the Russian peasants 
that have inhabited Siberia for centuries are very 
different from those of Russia. Here they become 
rough, lacking in benevolence and gratitude, and al- 
ways suspicious. It is the result of a severe struggle 
with wild surroundings, and of the fact that, ever 
since Siberia came under the Russian government, the 
officials sent to rule it have been those who could not 
be tolerated even in Russia. Those who are too bad 
to be endured there are sent to Siberia, and reign 
here without any restraint. In consequence the 
natives look on everyone coming from Russia as a 
scoundrel and a brigand ; for Siberia is the place where 
all the convicts are settled. No wonder the 'Tchal- 
dans' (the nickname for Siberian people of the Sla- 
vonic race) have a strong prejudice against anyone 
who comes from Russia, and it takes time before the 
best of them are trusted. Now, the number of good 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 223 

and honest people who constitute the majority among 
our exiles have made a favorable impression on the 
population, and the inhabitants are not able to dis- 
tinguish a true 'political' from a false one. Hundreds 
of such are here, too, for the government throws in 
one heap with people struggling for the right, many- 
unworthy people who have had no share in any honest 
activity. So our enemies are spoiling the reputation 
of the whole mass of 'politicals.' We have many 
troubles on this account, many afflictions, and many 
judgments, which have sometimes ended with the 
exclusion of the guilty person from the society of the 
rest. One cannot be severe enough in such a position 
as ours. If anyone wishes to preserve his human 
dignity and his calling of a struggler for the right, he 
must be an example to the rest of the population in all 
his concerns ; in his exterior as in his interior life. 
And here, w^here no other means exist to prevent de- 
generation but self-control, and the public opinion of 
our comrades, here we must be stronger in our prin- 
ciples than elsewhere. 

"What a beautiful life Isabel's has been! I have 
translated your account of it, and it will be printed 
in a journal for young people. I often watch her in 
different phases of her present life. I see her running 
with our June; her face is radiant, like a saint who 
sees heaven. The child is a symbol of the best future 
of mankind, especially a child that has for its fore- 
fathers such people as Isabel and her distinguished 
husband. Another time I see her speaking at a Con- 
gressional reunion, and she is beautiful, with her 
strong speech and her severe expression. And then 
I see her among her friends, animating the whole 



^^4 LITTLE GEANDMOTHER OP RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

group, giving interesting news and comments, inspir- 
ing those around her with a benevolent feeling towards 
all the world. Now that I know she has a companion 
in her son, I imagine her walking with him in the 
forest, with searching eyes and aroused mind, trying 
to penetrate into the secrets of nature. She is far 
from any trouble, amidst the beautiful and silent 
creation, and her soul is wandering in God's region. 
... It would be so well, so well for the youth of 
every country to have a full description of her life, 
which has been an uninterrupted course of reasonable 
labor and noble actions — a soul full of love and energy. 
Her God must be satisfied with such a daughter. Such 
a woman is to be chosen as a model, for she has not 
only preached all her life, but also acted. She has 
never been tired, or never permitted herself to be so, 
and all she could give away she has given. A rare 
and idealistical example." 

To Mrs. Barrows. March 31-April 13, 1912. 

"It is long since I have seen such a collection of 
brave, witty, and sympathetic men as in 'The Moral 
Citadel.' It rejoiced me the more since, except for 
a dozen excellent characters, I had not the oppor- 
tunity to make so close an acquaintance with American 
men as I had with the women. I saw that the men 
were so occupied with their business, always so serious, 
and I dared not approach them. Certainly such men 
as Professor Ely and the young students in New York 
I felt to be good friends; and I looked upon Mr. 
Barrows with veneration, mingled with fear of being 
a burden. Now that I know his life of devotion 
and love for all humanity, his beautiful face, yes, his 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 2^5 

whole tall slender figure are so near to me, so wholly 
near, that I often address him, and approach him like 
a beloved relative who is glad, too, to find out his old 
sister. 

*'What wonderfully good examples of the human 
species we have on our earth ! How can one be dis- 
tressed or become disenchanted after having known 
such people as I have known in my country, in yours ? 

"The Woman's Journal is a clever and warlike 
piece of work. They repeat very often the same argu- 
ments, but it is well in this case, for one must 'battre 
le fer quand il est chaud.' Once a week you must cry 
aloud, not to be forgotten the other six days. 

*'The Survey is a friend whose presence with us 
can last very long, for it treats of subjects with which 
we shall have to do for a long time, gradually amelio- 
rating the innumerable defects of our social life. 
Every worker in social questions would do well to read 
the Survey, for every one of them would find there 
some investigations useful in his own specialty. If 
not new, the Survey is never old. 

"Easter was spent well. I got a beautiful gramo- 
phone, with excellent songs and musical parties. 
For three days we have had music from 9 a.m. till 
9 P.M. One relay of young men came for three or 
four hours, then another, and I was afraid it would 
continue the whole week, so I sent the instrument for 
a while to my friends, a very good family of our people. 

"I have some pupils in French, German and Eng- 
lish. But my time is spent for the most part in preach- 
ing, and hearing the confessions of hundreds. Every 
one has his own secret or sorrows to tell me, and to get 
an answer. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

"As for my health, it is good while I sit at home. 
The body may be very well wrapped up and not feel 
cold, but it is enough for me to breathe a cold air to 
begin to sneeze, and to have miserable bronchitis. 
It is very abominable, but with milder weather my 
health will be restored. 

*'I have received this printed card: 'The Holy 
Spirit of the Spring is working silently.' The thing 
is done with much taste. I shall write on it and 
send it to the lawyer who defended my cause so 
heartily. But we have no mail this month. We 
have friends so far off, on the border of the Ice Sea, 
that they can receive mail only once a year. We are 
fortunate." 

Picture postcard ^ to June Barrows Mussey. April 2- 

15, 1912. 

"My beloved grandson! These three creatures are 
little pawns. Now they are plucking prunes, and 
eating them with great pleasure. But they work 
very hard every day, and have no time to do much 
wrong, like the kings and queens, who remain always 
lazy, for all is done for them by the laboring pawns. 
Many of the little pawns have excellent capacities ; 
they learn well, and work for the welfare of the whole 
people. So will you, too." 

" June 2-15, 1913. 

"I would cross the ocean like these ducks, to see 
our Nonna, to kiss her hands, and to know how strong 
she is now. Tell her that Catherine is well, walking 
every day, and looking after her vegetables that she 
has planted in a large bed." 

^ The picture shows three peasant children picking fruit. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 227 

To Miss Dudley. April 3-16, 1912. 

"Your letter gave me great joy. Dearest girl! I 
see you are taking a right course, and you will find a 
profound relish (yes, a relish) in approaching 'the other 
half of humanity, so unknown, so disapproved. If 
you find there many sides of life which are too heavy 
and sometimes too disagreeable, yet you must feel 
that only in approaching this sea of laboring human 
beings, investigating their mode of life and their 
psychology, can one act reasonably and rightly. For 
' the other half ' is the basis on which the whole organ- 
ization of our society is built. If the foundation is 
wrongly laid, it will crack, and all the structure above 
will be thrown down. And if a citizen wishes to be of 
use to his country he must begin with the basis. All 
the rest is only palliatives, and, if we have nothing 
against philanthropy, yet we cannot admit that such 
work can solve the social problem. For my part, I 
esteem and love tenderly the people who work sin- 
cerely as philanthropists, but I am always sorry to see 
such mighty forces choose a line of work that does not 
bring the great benefit which results from work amidst 
*the other half.' When working there, a person of 
mind and heart will see and understand at once the 
state of things, of social relations and needs. With- 
out books, without being taught, you see clearly where 
the talent is buried. You will see at once that the 
world is now divided into two parts, and that we have 
to make these two parts like one body. We see, too, 
that one part is willing to do so, and that the other 
does not wish it. . . . Oh ! much to do ! But, when 
once the people have found out the place that makes us 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

suffer, time only will be needed to restore the wrong. 
And you see how fast this teaching is now spreading. 
There are quite plain, uninstructed minds of peasants 
and workmen that need to be informed only once not 
to forget it during their whole life, and to explain it 
quite distinctly to every one who will hear it. For it 
is life itself that is teaching, learning, and suggesting; 
there nothing is invented ; there is no place for fancy 
or poesy, — a naked truth. 

"I cannot tell you how glad I am. For I am sure 
your nearest friends will follow you, and devote more 
attention to the labor question. It is very good, if 
only you will not speed like young horses, and lavish 
your forces so that you will be dead in one year. Only 
see how long Julia Ward Howe lived, and many other 
old ladies of whom I have read with delight in the 
American papers. How beautiful it is to see and hear 
an old woman of eighty or ninety addressing words of 
love and reason to the young generation ! I have 
experienced myself that the words of an aged person 
carry much more weight with young people than those 
of their mates. They believe in the teaching much 
more when they see that old people preserve a young 
faith in the religion they have chosen. Therefore I 
urge all your company to spare their strength and 
health. There are not so many worthy people that 
they should be treated with neglect. I read much 
about what happened in Lawrence, not only in your 
papers, but in the Russian papers too. Our best 
papers never fail to mention all that concerns the cause 
of *the other half throughout the world." 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 229 

To Mrs. Barrows. (Undated.) 

** There are some very good women here (exiles too) 
that take care of me. Morning, noon, and night, 
they come to make all right, and to prepare my food. 
One wished to remain with me to nurse me, but she 
was arrested and turned out of the cabin. I knew it 
would be so, for any one must have a special permis- 
sion to live in the town, and this girl had none. And 
even if she had had one, it would have been the same, 
for every one who approaches me closely is contami- 
nated. Now instead of four spies I have six at my 
doors and windows. And yet I am happy in spite 
of all these villainies, for I do not think about them. 
I think how good people are to me, receiving tokens of 
love and friendship. I think this very fact makes my 
enemies very angry, and they permit my frequent and 
large relations with the world only perforce. Oh, 
they make searches and hope to find something preju- 
dicial near me. But I have nothing to conceal, and 
my feelings, my philosophy, are open to every one. 
Never mind ! Very soon I shall be well, prancing and 
dancing. Then Alice and Helena will receive long 
letters full of jokes and foolishness. 

"I am annoyed to be careful about my health. I 
want to feel joyful and strong. It is my habit, other- 
wise I am angry with myself. And it seems to me it is 
another person, an old foolish person. I do not recog- 
nize myself. I miss my soul, my very self. Very 
disagreeable ! Such a bad state makes me careful 
about my health. I am afraid of becoming an invalid. 
And I eat an excellent soup, and fine white bread 
and boiled milk. Dry fruits give a beautiful compote. 



230 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

In a word [I am] like a chess queen sitting on a 
throne. 

"With all this I pray God to give me reason and 
patience to remain as careful forever, to remain strong 
for the rest of my life. Perhaps God will hear my 
woes, and send me more character and attention. I 
detest being an invalid. For I think my age is not at 
all so great as to throw me out of life. And life is 
growing more and more interesting. I wish to witness 
it. Do you wish so too, dear sister, for there are many 
young people who learn from us to be honorable and 
brave, and we want to see them acting. 

"Do not address yourself to those that have no 
heart, no reason in their tops. It will never do. Your 
interference makes them more prudent and less rough, 
I know — but for your own tranquillity." 

To Miss Blackwell. June 6-14, 1912. 

"One thing causes me sorrow. It is the thought 
that the name of Lucy Stone, so often mentioned in 
her Journal, is known to few persons, and that the 
young generation pronounce that venerable name only 
by heart, without understanding how great and holy 
it is. Who could better relate her life, who could tell 
so clearly and sincerely how great and tender was this 
beautiful soul, how attractive this face that I remem- 
ber so well in the portrait in your room? Now that 
you have a wide and long experience, that you can 
compare the immense difference between the two de- 
grees of difficulty of the work done by your mother 
and those of to-day, you can show the world a wonder- 
ful picture of energy, perseverance, and self-denial 
exercised by a woman that won her cause by her own 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 231 

strength, fighting her way and rights hke a knight of 
unrivalled honor and courage. You have no right 
to leave the world without giving it the biography of 
your noble and beautiful mother. You have no right 
to rob posterity of such a treasure. Humanity is not 
yet too rich in beautiful examples not to show them 
to us as largely as possible. We need to have before 
us such images as can inspire us, teach us. 

" June 11-24. 

"It has been good weather these days. I have been 
often out of doors, and felt as if I were intoxicated. 

"Once you asked me what I thought of theatrical 
representations which are given only to satisfy our 
lowest tastes, our frivolities. I am against them, 
and never would recommend them to children and 
young people, understanding that grown people will 
go to such spectacles only to get some idea of them. 
Young people should be maintained only by high and 
beautiful pictures of our life. Children have, without 
our intervening, too many wicked and dishonorable ex- 
amples before them. I am sure the only reason there 
is so much bad literature, so many bad performances 
of all kinds, bad music, and bad morals is because the 
people are not well enough acquainted with that which 
is healthy, high, and beautiful. Most people, even 
now, ^vould prefer what is good, what is thoroughly 
good. Oh, yes, humanity has already developed the 
senses which can catch the more delicate traits of 
progress. 

"I send Mr. Herreshoff a big face of mine. It is 
very like me, and reminds one of the ancient statues 
made of stone and worn out with time. 



232 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

" The skirmish and all the wrongs that are committed 
during the election time wring my heart. I cannot 
read the description of it without suffering for a free 
country. Oh, if we had what you have already ! But 
it is our own fault. | 

"We have had some warm days. I am sure there 
will be more, and there will be time enough to get 
strong and beautiful ( !) before winter comes. Just 
now my cheeks are red and brown, my feet alert and 
gracious, my mind full of hope. A magnificence of 
different sorts of flowers are brought to me as splendid 
bouquets by our boys, who are climbing the mountains 
and searching the forests and valleys. A very rich 
flora, but for a very short time flourishing and orna- 
menting the rude and monotonous nature of the 
country. I cannot leave the town, and cannot breathe 
the air of the fragrant vegetation of the forests. But 
we have so many flies in our town, and other atrocious 
insects in all the houses, that it must be taken as a 
compensation for the want of living beings, inhabitants 
of the immense spaces surrounding us. 

"Oh, if you were as well and strong as I am, not- 
withstanding all the defects and deprivations of my 
liberty ! 

"Miss Addams is always in action, and many other 
women, the pride of your country. Certainly, when 
once we get our rights, we shall prove our fitness. It 
was proved long ago. But, for my part, I think never 
was given such an excellent answer on the suffrage 
question as was given by Clara Barton, that majestic 
and wonderful woman." 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 233 

To Arthur Bullard. July 4-17, 1912. 

"ie monde se reveille.^* 

*'Yes, politics in America, as everywhere, is more 
hopeful now. I am very eager to be aware how great 
is the progress in your country, being sure that its 
example will have a world wide significance. The 
thousands of immigrants that invade your country 
will promulgate the reforms made there in their own 
native lands, for many of them are only temporary 
toilers in the United States. Therefore all the news 
concerning the state of political questions in the 
United States (the election of the president included) 
is a matter of great interest to me. 

"The book about Panama is a rich piece of literature 
for people who have a poor idea of what the physical 
and social life of the place is. 

"As for the 'ineffectual reformer', as you call him, it 
is exceptionally interesting. I am waiting for it. Per- 
haps I guess the character that may be the model of 
the man you describe. I remember a figure among 
the people of your set, very long, somewhat dull and 
melancholic, walking like a person of a world apart. 
Such figures are familiar to me, and I have learned to 
perceive through the outward loneliness and melan- 
choly of their faces, an emptiness of mind and feelings. 
Pardon me if I am wrong in regard to your hero ; but 
I never saw courage and abnegation combined with a 
lack of enthusiasm and faith, I think that a true 
exposition of the before mentioned character in his 
efforts to be useful to mankind will be of great profit 
to your readers ; showing how little or nothing a man 
can do who is not sure enough of what he is doing. 



234 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

I hope our fatherland will move too; it cannot rest 
behind. Being pushed from East and West, it must 
go forward." 

To a Friend. July, 1912. 

" You are not married yet, and you gaze like a phi- 
losopher on the happiness of your friends, without 
bitterness, enjoying their family life as if it were your 
own. Well ! you are young ; you will choose a nice, 
working suffragist, who will embellish your life with- 
out giving you much trouble about getting a great 
deal of money. 

*' To-day I saw two of my boys going to visit their 
brides. They have to go more than a thousand miles, 
half of which they will travel on foot, and eating only 
bread and tea. The boys and the two girls have 
recently finished their terms in the hard labor prisons, 
and yet they are young, fresh, and full of hope. They 
are enthusiastic enough, and will reach their ends." 

To Mrs. Barrows. August 6-19, 1912. 

"Life and Labor suits me as well as the best 
Russian magazines, for it is simple and noble. 

*'I have a terrible photograph of myself, very like 
indeed. I will send it to your son, but he mustn't be 
afraid." 

Picture postcards to June Barrows Mussey. August 

17, 1912. 

"You see in this picture a horde of ancient Cossacks, 
when they formed a nation of their own, and were 
really brave and independent. Free as they were, 
they elected every year a new chief, a colonel, who 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 235 

ruled all tlieir affairs. When the ceremony of election 
took place, the ex-chief would transmit to the newly 
chosen 'Ataman' all the relics, or jewels, which were 
regarded as the treasure belonging to the whole army, 
and a sign of honor for the person that kept them. 
So, my dear grandson, I will transmit to you the keep- 
ing of my best sentiments and thoughts." 

October 26-November 9, 1912. 

"You see that this boy takes his toy for a living 
bear. He is a little afraid of him, yet courageous 
enough to encounter him in a fight. So often in our 
life we are mistaken, taking quite childish things, 
trifles, for serious or dangerous circumstances, and we 
waste our time and forces about nonsense. Do not 
cry unless you are badly hurt, and never be a coward." 



CHAPTER XV 

George Lazareff to Mrs. Barrows. November 8, 1912. 

"After the peaceful strike at the Lena gold mines, 
more than eight hundred men, women and children 
were shot, killed and wounded, and all the political 
exiles, many of whom were working there, were expelled 
from the place. This trouble happened in the district 
of Kirensk. 

"The police made two searches at Madame Bresh- 
kovsky's. They took away all her papers, postcards, 
and photographs, but later returned them. She is 
practically imprisoned in Kirensk. Meanwhile she 
is doing incessantly a great worl^ in her immense dis- 
trict in organizing help for the starving exiles, and 
through them medical and other assistance for the local 
population. The whole population love her, and this 
again excites fresh suspicion on the part of the police. I 
send her regularly forty rubles a month" (a little more 
than twenty dollars). 

With three picture postcards sent to Miss Dudley. 

"1. This is a tj^pical Russian student. She comes 
from a far-off province, lives on eight or ten dollars per 
month, and is studying day and night, till she grows as 
lean as a dying woman. She wears these clothes 

236 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 237 

autumn and winter, till she catches some illness, very 
often fatal. She wishes to be useful to her people, 
and to know everything in the world. Too eager for 
laiowledge, and therefore not seldom missing its main 
object. The painter of this picture is a connoisseur of 
Russian types, especially among our youth. 

"I have here this year many young women. Some 
came with their husbands, others came here as political 
convicts, and very often I wonder to see how excellent 
they are. So modest, so zealous, clever and good. 
Working very hard, for all of them have to earn their 
bread, except myself, provided as I am with every com- 
fort imaginable." 

"2. This girl is musing on what will be the destina- 
tion of her knowledge. Her heart is not glowing, but 
her reason is strong, and she fears to spend her forces 
cheaply. She is not a Puritan like the first, yet she 
appreciates herself highly enough to wish to be a first- 
rate woman. We have had many of this kind, and 
nearly all have been sentenced to many years of hard 
labor. Proud and strong characters. All the pictures 
I send to America are bought here in this little town. 
One merchant makes a large profit by selling these cards, 
for all our boys are very fond of good pictures, and they 
give up their last kopek merely to have some sym- 
pathetic face, or landscape, or symbol.'* 

" 3. Never tired and always ready to sing and to dance 
are the young girls of the Russian peasantry. Working 
in the fields sixteen hours a day, they return home, 
as well as the married women, with songs which are 
heard miles away. And while the mothers prepare 
the supper and take care of the little ones, the girls are 
out of doors, out of the village, running *horovod.' A 



238 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

large ring of girls, and often young boys, hand in hand, 
keep slowly moving and singing one song after another 
till the summer sun rises again, and all this squad 
disperses to begin work anew. Sometimes there is a 
violin, and more lively dances animate the numerous 
groups, where youthful peasants, poor and rich, feel 
themselves equal and free. There are beautiful 
examples of womanly beauty. And I imagine what a 
magnificent society we shall have when all these young 
wild beings get a serious and wholesome education." 

To Miss Dudley. October 6-19, 1912. 

"What an extra fine present, what a beautiful album 
of Wellesley College ! And Ellen Fitz Pendleton, what 
a majestic figure ! The life of Wellesley College 
students pictured there is like the paradise of Mo- 
hammed : joy, beauty, and festivity. Sorry there are 
not photos of their cabinets full of books, and desks, 
tables at which the nice blond heads I saw during m.y 
short visit at the college are working. 

*'How fond I am of the articles George Kennan is 
giving to the Outlook! All he says about Japan I 
agree with to the last word. For I have had the same 
experiences with other peoples, whose psychology is 
strange to the whole body of our nation. How well 
it is that science is making a successful advance toward 
giving different countries a knowledge of each other! 
It is so dull to have only strangers around us in every 
place on earth, when we are brothers, all coming from 
one source The soul is the same, the habits are 
different. 

"Alice sent me Mrs. Pethick Lawrence and Miss 
Christabel Pankhurst; very agreeable pictures, but I 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 239 

should pity tliem now, after all the sufferings they 
have experienced these last years. They do not laugh, 
and their cheeks are meagre and pale. I would not 
follow them, yet I cannot blame them, for they are 
sincere and distressed. I mean that, with the energy 
of Englishwomen, and the large possibility of carrying 
on their propaganda, the women could work their 
way out without militancy run to the extreme. 

"As to the war in the Balkans, I wish it would end 
the sordid question, the so-called 'Eastern question.'" 

On a picture postcard : 

"This is just the cell in the fortress of St. Peter and 
St. Paul. Everything is stone, asphalt, and iron; it 
is very dark in the cells on the first floor, for the wall 
which surrounds the buildings is high enough to keep 
out the light of the sun, and you never see the sky and 
stars. An old creature, like me, can support all the 
privations of air, light, motion, etc. But the young 
suffer seriously, and the silence and the mysterious 
running of all the ways of life there exert a distressing 
influence on the spirit and imagination. It is like a 
tomb. No human sounds, but very many sounds 
coming from outside, and from underground, the origin 
of which you cannot explain. Nobody answers your 
questions except the chief, very seldom seen, and you can 
torture yourself with visions and horrible pictures till 
you go mad. Many, many young lives have perished 
in this awful place, the best souls and best characters." 

To Lewis Herreshoff. October 10-23, 1912. 

"All those around me are too young to be a match for 
me, or, if I speak to the aborigines, too foreign to me. 



240 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

" I am not able to write more than I do, having on my 
hands a lot of cares concerning the health (mental and 
physical) of more than fifteen hundred youths. I cannot 
do the tenth part of what I want to do for my unfortu- 
nate family, but my thoughts are with them, and my 
heart is always busy with all sorts of sentiments. Hope, 
love, care, pity, are mixed with sadness, impatience, 
anger. 

"When alone or in my bed, I imagine to myself some 
unexpected chance that brings me large means of 
guaranteeing the welfare of my young family for some 
time. And I distribute and I keep the goods for the 
future, and so I fall asleep. Otherwise it would be 
impossible for me to keep up my humor and presence 
of mind, for every day's need and every day's misfor- 
tune would crush my heart. 

"My imagination has been very vivid from my 
childhood. I cannot read stories or accounts that tell 
about perversity, crimes, or cruelty. I am sure none 
of us could support the sight of tortures, for instance, 
yet nearly every one can read the description. I 
cannot, without being hurt mentally ; I become furious, 
for I represent to myself all the horror of the fact. 
Often I think it is only thanks to my imagination, 
always inclined to picture high or beautiful events, 
that I have preserved the strength I possess until now. 
Even all sorts of deprivations, moral or physical, 
are disgusting to such a point that I cannot read of 
them. 

"One of our best writers, Dostoievsky, translated 
into English, French, Italian, etc., is dreadful to me. 
I never read him. He is a psychologist and a scientist 
in all mental diseases. My body and my soul were 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 241 

always healthy ; I see a great mischief in every species 
of psychopathy. 

" The letter of your niece on the election of Roosevelt 
and Taft reached me. In the American press, as well 
as in the Russian press, I follow the race of the election, 
and I fear that no one of the candidates is fit to arrange 
matters better than they are now. Yet all goes with 
you much better than with us, to the shame of our 
people." 

To Miss Blackwell. October 20-November 2, 1912. 

"It has been a quite peculiar pleasure to me to read 
*A Man's World,' by Albert Edwards. Why so.? It 
is well written, and includes a lot of interesting questions 
and facts; but that is not all. The book captivates 
me for its very near approach to the style of our best 
autobiographers. It is even diflacult for me to conceive, 
when reading it, that it is by a foreigner : just like our 
own method of setting forth the things which are dear 
to us, and those which concern our ideas and feelings. 
No ejffects, no self-admiration, no desire to move the 
reader by any sentimental pictures or descriptions — ■ 
plain and true. And yet you feel all the time how in- 
telligent and profoundly meaning the author is, how 
awakened is his spirit. The constant sadness and 
melancholy of his heart is not underlined by himself, 
but the reader himself sees this rather stern figure, that 
keeps in his mind a world of thoughts and observations. 
Having missed the happiness of the outer world, he 
has acquired, by a long way of study and philosophical 
watchfulness, an inward world of knowledge of the 
secrets of life. And, as our acquaintance with human 
psychology makes us masters of life with all its vicissi- 



242 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

tudes, we feel that the author of this book stands 
strongly on his mental feet, and is capable of discerning 
distinctly the wrong from the truth. 

"You must notice how bad my writing is growing. 
It is because I am always tired. My head is full of 
the needs of those around me; and when you add all 
the mischiefs coming from our enemies, it becomes a 
heavy load. Sometimes I feel ashamed before the 
young people, having no words, no voice to express 
myself. 

"I have sent three cards to Helena Dudley, our 
growing friend, whose majestic figure I imagine on the 
platform at Lawrence. How glad I am, how beautiful 
it is, without any flattery ! 

"How different is 'A Man's World' from 'Fifty 
Years of Prison Service,' an autobiography by Zebulon 
R. Brockway! This man assures us that every func- 
tionary was the most venerable officer, yet he finishes 
his account of nearly every one by adding that the 
officer was killed by some convict for his cruelty. It is 
a narration of a very uniform performance of service 
of a pedant, and no signs of the psychological growth 
of a human soul," 

Mrs. Barrows wrote to her, protesting against this 
judgment on Mr. Brockway. I insert her reply 
here, although out of chronological order. 

February 5-18, 1913. 

"You were right in saying that I had read only the 
first part of the book, 'Fifty Years of Prison Service,* 
when I wrote my letter. Now that I have read it 
to its last page, I am entirely of your opinion, that the 
author, venerable Mr. Brockway, was an imposing 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 243 

figure in the tenacity and the devotion of his character, 
which never failed him. And it is above all the last 
chapter, 'The Ideal of a Prison System,' which proves 
the sagacity and sincerity of this remarkable man. 

"I must tell you that it is just the difference in 
character between our two peoples, the Americans and 
the Russians, which keeps us from mutually under- 
standing each other at first. For instance, ignorant 
and grotesque as are our people, and consequently our 
criminals, they are particularly susceptible to the small- 
est kindness, to the least indulgence, even on the part 
of their persecutors. The expression, j' He is our father,' 
is always used in good faith in regard to the ofiicials 
who pay the least attention to the needs of their sub- 
ordinates, and never in my life have I heard of prisoners 
permitting themselves to ill-treat warders who were at 
all good to them, or who were even just to them. Our 
people acknowledge the law, and are always ready to 
obey it, and it is only a clear injustice, an intolerable 
persecution that makes them impatient and rebellious. 
Everything that is just, everything that is benevolent 
toward them, they appreciate and respect. But, as 
the whole world knows, these poor people are ill treated 
to the limit, in their everyday life ; they are still more 
so in the Russian prisons, where every monster of a 
jailor has a right to tyrannize over the prisoners as 
much as he chooses. The most hideous of these 
scoundrels sometimes get the fate that they deserve; 
they fall by the hand of a rebel, who, in most cases, is 
avenging the outrages endured by all his comrades, and 
not his own personal wrong. As for cases of officials 
who were straightforward and courteous being mur- 
dered, I have never heard of such a case anywhere. 



244 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

"Mr. Brockway's experience tells us just the opposite, 
and he gives many instances where the best behaved 
officials were killed quite young by the convicts, who 
had not even been ill-treated by them. It is quite 
possible that the independent character of the Ameri- 
cans cannot endure either restraint or control, and that, 
not being able to put up with either, they permit 
themselves to take a personal revenge ; while the Rus- 
sian criminals stand forward, in general, as avengers 
of the evils felt by their whole community, evils borne 
for a long time before being punished. 

" In addition to this difference between our characters 
and way of behaving, we have yet another, not less 
clear and significant. Whereas Americans (like all 
Anglo-Saxons) are punctual in their business, and in 
all their conduct relating to their duties and their mutual 
relationships, we Slavs, and above all we Russians, 
suffer greatly from the fault of nonchalance. On the one 
hand, this fault makes us fall short {manquer) in many 
good things ; makes us waste our time, our energy, 
even our knowledge, without deriving the necessary 
profit from them. On the other hand, in view of the 
severe laws, the rude manners, the despotism in all the 
corners of daily life, a rigid punctuality would make life, 
especially in the prisons, utterly unendurable. And it 
is in these cases that the Russian nonchalance permits 
the prisoners to breathe a little bit even in these frightful 
dungeons. In consequence, the Russian people abhor 
officials who are martinets, knowing that the rigidity 
of the regime carried out in all its severity would make 
life impossible. I venture to believe that the frequent 
murders mentioned by Mr, Brockway are in part the 
result of these incessant 'chicanes' which must be 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSL\N REVOLUTION 245 

experienced by the individual subjected to a regime that 
deprives liim of all liberty, even in relation to his 
smallest wishes and needs. It is possible also that the 
Russian people, knowing that they have by their 
side a constant and implacable enemy, an enemy that 
is complex and as it were insaisissable, may turn their 
eyes rather toward this complexity, wishing to get 
rid of it once for all. Hence individual cases of 
atrocities, horrible though they may be, are borne with 
patience, or rather with stoicism. We are accustomed 
to daily cruelties, and face them as inevitable facts. 

"For instance, one day lately, an exile who was ill 
was obliged to leave the hospital before his strength 
was reestablished. The doctor told him to stay in the 
city, so as to be able to make visits to the dispensary 
for some time longer. But the police had him arrested 
and taken to the place where he was to be exiled, 200 
versts from here. The cold was intense, the invalid's 
clothes were too thin, and after two days of a miserable 
journey, the poor man was brought back again with 
his hands and head severely frozen. The doctor had 
to amputate his fingers, and both ears, leaving him 
maimed for life. 

"To-day we have had the grief of burying another 
comrade, a very intelligent Jew, who, not being able to 
get a passport — Jews here are not allowed to have 
passports — not being able to go anywhere to find work, 
died almost of starvation. . . . You will understand 
that, having before me in the past and in the present 
an endless series of such pictures, it is not prison reform 
that I am thinking about, it is not to that object that 
I should like to direct the strength and attention of 
the public, although I venerate the beings who occupy 



246 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

themselves with it, but that I should like to see the 
whole modus vivendi changed so much that the popula- 
tion of the globe would not be subjected to sufferings 
from which they could be relieved with advantage 
to the whole world. 

"I want to say a few words more about our friend 
Bullard's book, whose work arouses my lively curiosity 
{ni' intrigue vivement), and this is why. Here again, 
perhaps, we have to do with the difference of racial 
characteristics. We prefer characters who are always 
in quest of the right and the true, under whatever form ; 
whether God, or religion, or forms of social life, or 
scientific truths. A dogmatic form of thought is alien 
to us. While advancing for the present such or such a 
form as better than any other, our spirit, or rather our 
imagination, leaves us freedom to create for ourselves 
superior forms of life to that which in the present is 
placed as the aim of our aspirations. And here in 
Arthur Bullard's book I find a soul, a mind which is 
searching, which is feeling its way, which ends by under- 
standing the imperfection of the very foundation where 
present society organizes its disfigured dwelling, where 
it introduces so many absurd customs, and, what is 
worse, so many deceptive principles. The character 
depicted in 'A Man's World' is likable on the one hand 
because of his disgust for evil, on the other because of 
his efforts to attain all the good permitted him by his 
nature, which is a little lymphatic, a little timid of the 
shocks which a bold and decided life risks encountering 
at every more or less decisive step. He is a con- 
scientious and devoted pioneer, but a timorous spirit, 
not enlightened enough to go and fight the super- 
stitions and evils of his century with an arm stretched 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 247 

out openly. It is people like that who take the first 
steps toward criticism, toward the renewal of the style 
of human life. I confess that in spite of the author's 
noble tendency, there were in his work pages that I had 
to skip, — not because they contained indecencies, 
there were none, but because I cannot bear scenes de- 
picting the degradation of a human being, or moments of 
moral suffering, where the human heart is full of deadly 
fear. For, being sure of my own courage, of my strength, 
which enables me to endure long and unavoidable 
sufferings, it always seems to me that other people's 
afflictions are much heavier and more intolerable. 
That is a personal trait which I never could get rid of. 
"Russians prefer works containing an idea, trying to 
develop it as far as possible, to make the reader under- 
stand and accept it. Tliat is why I find a resemblance 
between 'A Man's World' and the writings of our 
favorite authors. Besides that, works of our avowed 
romanticists never contain scenes of seduction, scenes 
that are exotic or extraordinary, and for two reasons : 
1. Our life, even the life of our great cities, is much less 
complex than that of American cities. 2. Our civilized 
public, and even our peasants, prefer works which lead 
us into regions of thought, of philosophy, of meditation, 
where one wishes to dwell without being interrupted by 
effects of a brutal or unbecoming kind. Our friend 
Arthur Bullard offers us his second book, 'Comrade 
Yetta,' which makes the continuation of a program 
of ideas and actions." 

To Mrs. Barrows. November 30-December 13, 1912. 

"My heart is full of you, for I am in distress thinking 
of your health. Why did you return from the sani- 



248 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

tarium, where some months more would disfranchise 
you of your disease forever ? What, am I more reason- 
able than you ? I have never believed it. Think only 
of your husband, who watches over you day and night. 
His soul rejoices to see how much light is thrown on 
every one who has the happiness of knowing you." 

To Miss Blackwell. November 30-December 15, 1912. 

"It is not true that the Socialists are opposed to 
culture and cultural work. It is absurd to affirm it. 
Yet I know that many people who understand the word 
'culture' in a very narrow sense, as splendid and 
showy examples of dijfferent arts, believe it is premature 
to think about this before the things of vital necessity 
are obtained. Others say that, as despotism is forcibly 
holding back every effort to cultivate the country, one 
must apply one's strength to clear the way before 
entering upon it. But in your country, for instance, 
where no efforts are hindered or annulled, there is 
plenty of cultural work, and it is urgently necessary, 
for how can we expect to get the people ready to accept 
new forms of sociability, forms which demand a quite 
new and very accomplished conception of life and 
mutual relations, without preparing them for it? It 
is a great mistake to think that the human mind is 
ready to accept and to digest every new conception 
or idea, without having learned long in advance to 
understand it and to embody it. 

" Culture, in its large sense, is a matter that involves 
in itself all the progress, with its functions, known from 
the beginning to the latest minutes of our existence. 
How can we allow ourselves to be deprived of this knowl- 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION M9 

edge, which is the common treasure of mankind ? How 
poor and naked our existence would be without those 
professions which give us the means of introducing into 
the minds and feehngs, as well as the senses, of our 
brothers and sisters the best ideas, the best tastes, the 
best habits, best knowledge, and best sentiments ! 
Are we not endeavoring to guarantee them all the means 
not only of conserving what has been acquired already, 
but of going forward with the improvement? This 
does not mean that we must forget the material side 
of the matter. It only means that, while establishing 
the material side on a durable foundation, we must 
by no means forget to arm the people with all the prog- 
ress that history has made. Culture, so understood, 
is an inherent part of our activity and our endeavors.'* 

To Miss Agnes E. Ryan. 

"You are my weekly companion, too. I follow 
eagerly the progress of the Woman's Journal; it is the 
first thing I read after the mail is delivered. A great 
thing is the work of the suffragists ; it is a big force 
to make the world better, and I am sure the women of 
all countries will improve the status of our planet's 
husbandry. Only we must not forget to do our best 
for the people who are now deprived of the possibility 
of enlarging the conditions of their welfare. I con- 
gratulate you on the fitness of your paper to maintain 
sympathy with all the most attractive sides of the 
general progress spread over all countries. China at- 
tracts my sympathy especially, and I am angry because 
the big governments are jealous of its success." 



250 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

To Miss Dudley. December 1-14, 1912. 

"Helena! I am knocked down by the goodness of 
Wellesley College ! I feel myself guilty, ungrateful. 
What can I do to show myself appreciative enough of 
such attention.? I, who am ashamed even to write 
to persons who have no reason to be so indulgent as 
you are toward me. Nevertheless, I am very glad to 
get anything nice and new. For a long time, before it 
is sent or given away, I enjoy it myself, and so do all 
those who come to see me, and they are many. I am 
always proud to be able to show how good my friends 
are and how constant in their tenderness. Years and 
years coming and going away, times changing, and new 
cares and works overwhelming the busy heads and 
hearts — and yet the ties of friendship are strong, and 
do not yield to the temptations of the surrounding 
chaos of affairs, matters, feelings and duties, so multi- 
plied and more and more complex. Oh ! the American 
women contain a rich endowment of energy, of will, 
of sincerity and stability. Certainly I am proud, but 
I would not abuse, and take more than is due." 

On the backs of three picture postcards, .reproductions 
of pictures by famous Russian painters, Madame 
Breshkovsky wrote an explanation of each. The first 
shows a young man in student uniform, and a young 
woman, with smiling faces, stepping hand in hand into 
stormy surf. She writes : 

"A student must wear a uniform, and many of our 
women students like to be * fashionable.' The painter 
represents life as a sea. The young couple are ready to 
throw themselves into it, having faith in their strength 
and in the ideal they picture. Certainly only a part 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 251 

of those radiant beings retain for long the thrillings of 
their hearts, and most of them are lost in the depths of 
common life, with its petty demands and cares. A 
part of them become very superficial people, the boys 
especially. Yet there are exceptions ; we have had 
them. I confess I do not like this genre, for I cannot 
depend on people who are so light-hearted, so super- 
ficial. Profound natures make me happy." 

The second shows a young peasant woman working 
in the field with a horse. Madame Breshkoysky 

says: 

"Perhaps a young widow, perhaps the oldest of a 
group of orphan children. She works hard, but she 
will not desert her duty. When a girl, she will not 
marry till all her brothers and sisters are conveniently 
placed. She is a responsible being before God and her 
community, and she will do all she ought, very seldom 
complaining of her heavy fate. She is head of the house, 
and all her pride and honor lie in performing the work 
done by her late parents. Very often such girls remain 
unmarried till the end, attached as they are to the wel- 
fare of the family. I am sure that if it were possible to 
issue a call to the peasant women in order to have 
nurses enough for the orphan children scattered through 
the country, we should have plenty of ' mothers ' ready 
to bring up deserted families as tenderly and devotedly 
as possible. I am sure it would be so with us, and no 
doubt it would be so everywhere, for the woman soul 
is the same." 

The third card shows a young girl leaning against a 
white birch tree in a thoughtful attitude. It is en- 



252 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

titled "Fancies not to be fulfilled." Madame Bresh- 
kovsky says : 

"Perhaps personal, perhaps altruistic fancies. We 
have many such types, but they are not quite Russian. 
It is a blend of Russian with some other blood. In 
England or America she would be a missionary. In 
Russia the intelligent people are not pious ; they strive 
to be rational in the highest sense of the word. Yet to 
be so, one must be very strong and renounce one's own 
comfort ; consequently those with less strong characters 
are vacillating, and muse too long on the path they 
ought to choose. I pity such girls much, for they are 
honest and sincere, and most of them remain unsatisfied 
all their lives. Even when they are married and have 
a family they feel as if they were guilty, as if they had 
thrown away some treasure that will never be found 
again. How happy are those who are sure of the way 
they have taken ! This certainty makes one master 
of the world, which is only a stage, a beautiful one, for 
one's activity, and the object as well as the source of 
one's love." 

To Lewis Herreshoff. (Undated) 

"Your letter with the check reached me in safety, 
but I was embarrassed, not knowing what to do with it. 
We have no bank, no bankers in this wild country, 
and the money was so much needed before New Year's 
Day ! I resolved to send the check to Irkutsk, where 
there is a branch of the Russian Asiatic Bank, asking 
them to return me the money by wire. So I did, and 
to my great pleasure, instead of 47 rubles I got 145 
rubles. Some lady of my acquaintance learned the 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 253 

fact, and added the 100. I was so much surprised that 
I wired once more to know for sure, whether it was not 
a mistake. To my great joy it was not, and so your 
gift reached me in threefold size. Your promise to 
gratify me every year with $25 gives me great satis- 
faction, for I do not spend much for myself, and this 
sum will be my own. Thank you, Lewis, my friend, 
very good and chivalrous ! You men cannot be other- 
wise in America, where you have such excellent 
women. I only wish the success that follows their 
energy may never make of them such business-like 
people as most of your men are. For nothing in the 
world is so lovable as a good heart, a sympathizing 
character. \\^ien a human creature sincerely smiles 
upon another, one feels one's self so well, more sure of 
one's safety. It is a horror to think that a human being 
can be a monster to his fellow creatures, a monster that 
is feared and hated. And yet there are so many 
educated Europeans who are pumping sweat and blood 
out of their neighbors' veins ! 

"I am deeply interested in the literary career of my 
friend Arthur Bullard, known by his pen name as 
Albert Edwards. 

"As for the romances and novels that are so numerous 
in all the magazines which I get (and I get the best ones) , 
they are tedious with scandals of every sort. We have 
among us also a lot of foolish writings, but they have 
their place apart ; they are printed by the magazines 
destined for the street and for ignorant people. Our 
best magazines are careful in choosing the articles and 
novels to be put in. We do not prize so much art 
which does not contain any noble idea. Literature as 
well as painting, sculpture, music, and other arts 



254 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

must not only be perfectly performed, but must contain 
a meaning, or a majestic or noble idea, to be honored 
and admired. 

"I am sure our nation is an enigma to all the rest. 
Having a sense of religion, of the holiness of human 
destiny, a love for all that is courageous and self- 
sacrificing, a taste for the beauty of earth and heaven 
— with all this our people endure a most miserable 
mode of life, always waiting for a miracle to get rid 
of it. We are not so lazy as the Italian lazzaroni, 
but we are slow, we contemplate instead of acting. 
It is our misfortune. Our peasants in Russia (not 
in Siberia) are like Diogenes ; they can understand 
everything and reason about everything, and yet 
are capable of living like savages in cabins fit for 
cattle. . . . 

"I could not continue yesterday, for there were 
'boys' the whole evening. Some of them must have 
long talks with me, often on the subject of their mood, 
sadness, or longings that inhabit their minds and torment 
them. I am here like a priest, who must know all about 
his people, and have patience to hear all the details 
which my orphan boys have to confess. With me they 
are openhearted, being sure I love them and sympathize 
with all their griefs. Most of them are afraid to do 
anything wrong, for my sake ; my severity as to prin- 
ciples is respected, and those who do not follow them as 
strictly as they ought are much embarrassed when they 
come to see me. I am not implacable, but I am sure 
that every man and woman must form the habit of 
careful self-control from their tender youth. And I 
am so much obliged to my parents for having taught 
me this duty." 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION ^55 

To Miss Blackwell. February 12-25, 1913. 

"From my childhood I have never sympathized 
with the duaHsm of sentiments and devotion. One 
may have a very complex character, one may admire 
the whole world and understand all the beauties con- 
tained in it; one may be happy to sympathize with 
every perfection of nature and art ; and yet one must 
have along with all these riches an aim, a God, a virtue, 
or a principle, that will stand above all the rest. And 
while enjoying the luxury of life, one must be ready at 
every moment to perform one's duty towards the aim 
that stands over all. That is my ideal of a human 
being ; and I must add that the more superior the aim 
chosen to stand highest is to other aims or ends of life, 
the more valuable is the person who has chosen it. 

"My health is much better this winter, which seems 
to have no end. All is right with me except my poor 
heart, which is always thrilling with sorrow for my 
starving boys, with no hopes for a better future for 
them ; for we expect this summer more and more people 
who have served their terms in the hard labor prisons. 
What can we do ? One must endure the world's pain, 
and be satisfied to be able to do it." 

To Arthur Bullard, with a photograph. February 

14-27. 

"Here I am in my American overcoat, sitting at my 
large table, and sewing a shirt for one of our poor boys. 
Behind is a commode with my various possessions. 
My armchair being upholstered with light-colored 
stuff, I put my black skirt over the back of it, in order 
to have my white hair stand out from the furni- 



S56 LITTLE GEANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

ture. And while sitting at my little work, I listen to 
the thoughts and fancies of my young friend, Arthur 
Bullard, as he creates the world of man's and woman's 
life, trying to bring them out of old traditions and 
corrupted morals, to enter a more human, more 
brotherly-constructed mode of life. It makes me very 
happy to see such a majestic commonwealth as the 
American States awakening to a more righteous and 
ethical life. This effort will stir the energy of other 
countries, not so quick to attain the end put before 
them. I bless you for doing your best for your people, 
for the growing youth, that before all must be human 
toward every one who needs care and bounty. Too 
selfish, too narrow is the human world, and cowardly 
subjugated to all the prejudices of mean spirits. Hold- 
ing stiffly to all these prejudices, one cannot remain just 
toward the mass of the people that is struggling for the 
first necessities of life. Severe we ought to be towards 
ourselves and other intelligent and well-to-do indi- 
viduals, but all the rest, all who are deprived of mental 
and material welfare, are to be helped only to come 
over the abyss ready to swallow them at every mo- 
ment." 

To Effie Danforth McAfee. March 15-28, 1913. 

"Till now there has not been a mail that has not 
brought me something from America. This has not 
only made me a devoted friend of the United States, 
but has made me feel like a relation, especially to the 
American women, whom I praise as a beautiful species 
of the human race. Their energy and cleverness are 
equalled only by the women of Finland, who amazed 
me by their fitness for all that is worthy to be done. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 257 

That little country is a wonder of hard work and 
stability of character. The women there are the best 
part of the population. 

" My opinion is that everywhere on earth the women 
are more exquisite creatures and much less corrupted 
than the men. But the difference between the two sexes 
is not the same in every country. I think, so far as I 
see, that all the northern countries have a most high 
contingent of women, because they have more time and 
chance to improve their minds, while the men are so 
busy with the material side of life. But in Russia, for 
instance, the opportunity to study and to perfect one's 
self is very hard for both sexes. Consequently the 
boys and girls are on an equal level of education, and 
so understand each other quite well. We should not 
have a 'woman question,' for the women would not 
ask but take their rights as a matter of course. Now 
every one is a slave, then everybody would be free." 

To Miss Blackwell. March 15-28, 1913. 

"My own experience seems to me a small matter 
compared with the sufferings of others, perhaps be- 
cause of my strong constitution of body and spirit. 
And perhaps it has not happened to me to endure such 
tortures as were the case with others. Now, this very 
year, we have so many diseases, insanities and suicides, 
that sometimes my strong soul is going mad. I feel 
as if I were thrown into hell, where I cannot find an 
issue. 

"In the first place, the longer the exiles remain in 
such wicked conditions, the less strength they have to 
resist them. Secondly, during the last tv/o years we 
have had a lot of boys who were sent out from the 



258 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

prisons where they had finished their terms at hard 
labor. The conditions in these prisons are so atrocious 
that in three or four years a young, strong man becomes 
an invahd for hfe, and very often is deprived of his 
mental capacities. If he is not tortured himself, he be- 
comes there a daily and nightly witness of the tortures 
of his comrades, who are beaten, starved, thrown into 
dungeons and humiliated. The more clever, the more 
energetic are sure to spend some years in these special 
prisons, and we receive them bruised, destroyed by con- 
sumption, and very often insane. 

"And here, in Siberia, matters are going worse. 
Before the festivities took place, we were warned that 
after the 'Manifesto' new severities would be intro- 
duced. But they were enforced everywhere, in Russia 
and here, even before, and an innumerable quantity of 
people are arrested everywhere and sent into the more 
remote places. All this is horrible, but it is shameful 
too, for such a great country ought not to endure such 
calamities. Nobody can picture to himself all the 
horrors, all the miseries, all the disgraces the people 
endure. There, above, it cannot be seen, for the 
gentlefolk and bureaucrats are very nice towards free 
people. But all who are not 'gentle,' all who are 
captive, see well the underside of life, and cannot be 
happy. I beg your pardon for such an ugly letter." 

To Miss Blackwell. March 30-April 2, 1913. 

"Yes, all is well for some time, except the news 
about Arthur. In a hospital ! Oh, dear and poor 
boy ! What a pity for such a noble spirit ! I am not 
an admirer of myself, for instance, but, being sure of 
my sincerity and good will, which make me ready to 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 259 

serve my neighbor, I wish to Hve as long as my mental 
capacities render me able to be of use. There is not yet 
a very large lot of strong-minded and good-hearted people 
on our earth ; therefore we must spare them, and do our 
utmost to retain their spirits with us longer and longer. 

"Last night I was awakened by a terrible headache, 
which continued till now, 4 p.m. At first I could not 
explain my misfortune, but when I saw through the 
window a thick snow falling, I understood directly. 
Since I made acquaintance with prisons, my blood has 
not been so thick and so red, and it cannot resist the 
pressure of a condensed atmosphere, as it could before 
my imprisonment, when I was a very Cossack in 
strength and health. But now that the heaven is not 
so heavy, I feel better, and can continue my affairs. 
It is the same with all my sorrows. It is very hard to 
encounter each of the new ones. But when you put 
your mind to action, to the search how to do your best, 
you have no time to spend on weeping, and you feel 
better, seeing that your efforts are not quite in vain. 

"I am angry with myself for having written you my 
last letter, in which I deplored the horrors of the life 
of our exiles. We must be accustomed to it, and none 
of us could expect a better lot. And so you can be 
tranquil on my account, my shoulders being ready to 
bear every load. 

" April 2-15, 1913. 

"I find that, if my life had passed without the ex- 
periences I have had, it would be very poor and short- 
sighted. Now, as the hard and wicked sides of life 
are familiar to me, I can judge what my people 
suffer, what every person in such or such a position 



260 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

suffers, and this makes me more indulgent, and better 
able to divine the sufferings of others, their inner life 
and feelings. Sometimes when I feel impatient with 
the crowd of visitors, I say to myself : ' For shame, old 
woman ! You do not find it easy to bear the presence 
of good, unlucky people, while these people have to bear 
during the best part of their lives the rudest and most 
severe experiences that a black soul can imagine.' 
This thought makes me gentle and patient. 

"Dear friend, it is vain for Aunt Isabel to believe in 
the possibility of some day seeing me at liberty. We 
must expect nothing good from a set of people who 
manufacture only dishonor for their country." 

George Lazareff to Miss Blackwell. Clarens, Switzer- 
land, March 31, 1913. 

"Now the amnesty^ has been proclaimed. It was not 
for the political offenders, but only for some criminal 
bureaucrats, who had robbed the State treasury. 
Even the exiles banished by administrative order have 
not been released. On the contrary, the persecutions 
have been intensified." 

Mrs. Olive T. Dargan's book of plays, "Lords and 
Lovers", including her Russian play "The Shepherd", 
had been sent to Madame Breshkovsky by Miss Alice 
Lewissohn. 

To Miss Blackwell. June 3-16, 1913. 

"I have received a book containing three dramas, 
one of which aims to represent some types of our last 

^ It had been announced that the three hundredth anniversary of the 
RomanoflE dynasty would be celebrated by granting an amnesty to many 
prisoners. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 2G1 

revolution, to give a glimpse of this original event. 
But one sees at once that the author is not acquainted 
with the. real life of the people she speaks of, and all 
the entourage is taken from what she knows and sees 
in other countries. Nevertheless I am very glad to 
have this piece, for the foundation, the reasons for the 
troubles, are represented as they are in reality, truly." 

To Mrs. Barrows. June 20-July 1, 1913. 

"Your book, 'A Sunny Life,' is one of the everlasting 
writings. I mean it will be good always. It is of the 
same kind as the books that tell us about the lives of men 
like St. Francis of Assisi. Such books are not merely 
portraits of beautiful characters, but they are also 
historic documents of great value. As in a mirror one 
sees the moral capacities of the epoch described, and 
can judge the path and the progress toward the per- 
fection of human nature. A thousand years will pass, 
and the book will be read with as much interest as now ; 
perhaps with even more, for it gives a picture of moral 
welfare, of the happiness of a whole family, due only to 
its own perfection." 

On a picture card. To June Barrows Mussey. 

"How do you do, my dear grandson? This pretty 
girl wants to make acquaintance with you, and to show 
you the little dogs she is nursing with such pleasure. 
It is good that she loves every living thing, but you 
must remember to tell her that the largest share of 
our love and attention belongs to human beings. 
Children, women, and men, as having a more elevated 
spirit, must be attended, in order that they may become 
yet better, quite reasonable." 



262 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

To Miss Blackwell. July 31-August 13, 1913. 

"What unexpected news! You were dangerously 
ill. You were operated on ! Our dear Sophie will 
write me about your health. What does it mean, so 
many diseases? And I have been well all this time, 
notwithstanding the wet weather we have had this 
month. My lodging was undergoing repairs for more 
than two weeks. I spent them in a very disgusting 
cabin, and yet my health did not suffer. Now again I 
am comfortable in my palace, which is clean, bright and 
warm: excellent, indeed! So many pictures around, 
from America and Switzerland; many books, a gramo- 
phone and a sewing machine. My wardrobe is full, 
my dinners always good. And, what is most appre- 
ciated by me, I have some money to divide with my 
poor comrades." 

(Madame Breshkovsky was provided by friends in 
Europe and America with a small fund with which to 
help the other exiles, to buy tools for them, etc.) 

To Miss Dudley. August 12-25, 1913. 

"One good soul wrote me you are well and look 
quite flourishing and shining, God bless you ! I can 
say the same of myself — blossoming ! 

"I rejoice that you were pleased with 'A Man's 
World.' I am even afraid I shall not be as well pleased 
with 'Comrade Yetta.' There was a character that 
questioned and searched, with all the earnestness of a 
noble soul. Here we shall have perhaps a character 
formed from the beginning of the world, I mean an 
integral force, v^^hich never doubted, never relinquished, 
was never weak. There are those diamonds amidst 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSL\N REVOLUTION 263 

mankind. I admire them ; they are hke stars to show 
us our way, and to assure us of the possibiHty of such 
perfection on earth ; their march is beautiful and bril- 
hant, their brow is serene and majestic, they never 
stoop their heads, and the heads of others bow before 
them. And yet such splendid characters are a result 
of the work (historic work), which we cannot pursue nor 
analyze ; they are something ready, finished, not to be 
studied and dissected. When we see such perfection 
we can only guess, and we may mistake, not knowing 
the sources of such an apparition. Another thing, — 
when our attention is attracted to the process itself of 
the construction of the psychology of a soul, it struggles 
through life and is obliged to gain bit by bit the ground 
where it resolves to stand, for which it resolves to fight. 
I have seen many young people who envied characters 
free from weaknesses and defects ; they find it very 
hard to struggle against the blamable habits inherited 
or acquired ; they would prefer to feel themselves 
without failure. When young I wished it too, for I 
was very much ashamed of my weaknesses, felt un- 
happy after every fault I committed. Now I prefer 
characters that have had to do with many temptations 
during their youth, and come out victors from a serious 
struggle, fortified, with a strong will and understanding 
of their own capacities and ability, and of human nature 
in its consistence nowadays. Such people become more 
exacting towards themselves and more indulgent 
towards others, for they know how difficult it is to 
overcome the passions implanted by nature in our being 
before we are acquainted with it. The inheritance of 
different weaknesses, as well as the undesired habits 
acquired by an education full of prejudices, give us a 



264 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

heavy task to clean ourselves all our life long, and, once 
diligent enough to fulfill this task, consciously, the work 
we put in makes us vigilant, develops our energy and 
enlarges our mind infinitely. The earnest desire 
to be as good as possible is a stimulant which influences 
the development of all our best qualities and capacities. 
The older we are, the wiser. And we do not cease to 
love the world that has given us the great happiness 
of mounting higher and higher. 

"How charming it is that behind every one of my 
friends in America, there is another friend watching 
over my safety, and always alert to be there when 
needed ! Sophie Siebker, Agnes E. By an, Miss 
Scudder, Ellen Starr, our dear Lillian, and many good 
souls are ready to inform me about what concerns my 
three angels before all, and about all that is so dear to 
me in your beautiful country. I am so happy as to see 
and to learn the best sides of American life, for I have 
to do with the best people, the best papers, and best 
magazines. I see from my distance so many splendid 
pleiades or sets of women and men that seem devoted 
exclusively to the welfare of the great problems of 
human life. The questions of ethics and eugenics are 
making great progress, and spirited minds are working 
with enthusiasm to forward them quickly, in their eager- 
ness to see the world more and more conscious of the 
divine gifts with which nature has endowed it. Yes, it 
seems strange when we compare high-minded with 
low-thinking people. All the great questions are so 
simple to solve if one has passed one's time in studying 
about them, in thinking of them. And yet there are 
millions to whom the same questions are quite strange, 
a terra incognita, not worthy of belief. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION ^Go 

"And now, if we see and know only the best part of 
humanity, the smallest part, we do not know the whole 
reality, and may be cheated in our ignorance. But 
also if we remain only with the other, the majority, 
made up of the ignorant and low-minded, we become 
pessimistic, and our energy in fighting the wilderness 
and the darkness is greatly diminished. 

"Enclosed are two photos showing my gemusegarten 
(cabbages, potatoes, etc.). Here I am with my two 
comrades (cultivators), and the two figures with little 
geese are the owners of the domain where my friends 
lodge, and where I have rented some beds for my 
plantings. They wished eagerly to be photographed in 
our company. Every one says I am not so old as the 
photos make me look. Perhaps it is because somehow 
in speaking and smiling one always seems younger and 
lively. But when alone and quiet, I must look as 
old as I do here, though my heart remains always 
young." 

To Miss Blackwell. August 26-September 8, 1913. 

"I feel so constrained when I write in English! 
This feeling of bashfulness has its root in the education 
I received from my childhood. My mother was never 
tired of repeating, *Do well everything that you do. 
Never allow yourself to be inexact and negligent.' It 
was considered a sliam.e to make mistakes when writing 
or speaking any language, and I feel so to this day. 
This has kept me from writing to so warm a friend as 
Arthur Buiiard. I love him as v/ell as the best boys 
of my ovv'n country, and God knows how much I love 
them, how proud I am of them. 

"Aunt Isabel's illness kept me silent for a long time, 



^66 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

It was as if I spread my ears to catch the sounds of 
her respiration and the knocking of her heart. I 
watched her sleep ; and, anxious to understand her 
thoughts, I examined with my imagination all her 
surroundings, running from one object to another, 
and from Mabel to Henry and little June. I feared 
the doctors, so serious and grave, and could never 
wholly understand their intentions. I said to myself : 
* They have deprived our Isabel of all her teeth ; what 
will they do next.f*' Now that I hear she is getting 
better, I do not suspect the great savants, but before 
that, I did not love them. 

"Somebody has sent me 'The New Freedom,' by 
your President Wilson. Very interesting.'* 

To Miss Blackwell. September 9-22, 1913. 

"'Miss Caroline I. Reilly is spending a month with 
Miss Alice Stone Blackwell at her summer cottage at 
Chilmark, Mass.' This news has made me a sincere 
friend of the very noble Miss Caroline, whose hands I 
kiss ; but I cannot conceal that I was jealous of her 
pleasure in remaining with you for so long a time. I 
am only afraid that my presence would be a burden, 
for we Russians are too expansive. I mean we show too 
often and too much caresses and tenderness, to which 
your people are not accustomed. It is very hard for 
me to refrain from pouring out my feelings towards 
one v/hom I love much. Nevertheless I understand 
how tired the person may feel, and object to ever- 
lasting tenderness. 

"The same issue (No. 32) brought your articles. 
Your strong, experienced hand and mind are here like 
a hammer that strikes every question at its due place. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 267 

"All the money I get from your country is an 
enormous profit to us all. Certainly, in my position 
the comfort you have guaranteed is of great value to 
me ; but all this is little compared with the value of the 
friendship, the moral support that my friends in America 
have granted me. Your love and esteem is a force 
which can never fail, which is with me always, and 
everywhere, even in my tomb. Unknown as I am in 
your country, I feel as if I were one of its members, 
never to be rejected or cast out. 

" September 12-25. 

"Soon I shall write to Ellen Starr about your Presi- 
dent's book. I was agreeably surprised in reading it : 
but I am not sure how much will be done. 

"My beloved daughter, take patiently all the kisses 
I send you, and pardon my obstinacy." 

To Ellen Starr. September 26, 1913. 

"Your face is as fresh as ever in my memory. If we 
met to-day we should perhaps find each other somewhat 
changed outwardly, but our spiritual state remains 
always the same, and we should know each other at 
once. I am sure our friendship would be even more 
familiar, because the long years of separation have 
given us ample proofs of the stability of our feelings 
and of our moral tastes. Yes, dear friend, you are a 
soul that I do not fear to approach, having learned in 
the course of years that the tendency toward every- 
thing beautiful and pure is the very essence of your 
noble heart. 

"I look in vain for your name among the illustrious 
names of your American women; it is not there, nor 



268 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

that of Helena Dudley, that incomparable saint, always 
kneeling at the feet of her God of mercy. Once Helena 
was mentioned as about to take charge of a newly- 
established settlement outside of Boston. Alice's 
name is always there (nolens volens) as editor of her 
paper, which really constitutes an epoch in itself in 
the history of the woman movement of the whole world. 
Well, you three virgins who have devoted yourselves 
to serving the world without asking anything of it, 
without reaping any reward from it — you may re- 
main unknown to the world, loved and appreciated 
only by those who know you personally, who have 
learned to cherish the memory of your characters, able 
to respond to the cries of those who are suffering far 
away from you. That is beautiful, it is immortal ; but 
it does not always meet with its reward in this world. 
Nevertheless it is well to remain so to the end of our 
days, for nothing is so precious as a conscience sure of 
itself and tranquil as to the choice of the road that it has 
preferred to all others. The only thing that grieves me 
is the loss of persons who are the ornament of our race. 
"I have just finished Woodrow Wilson's book, 
'The New Freedom.' I am enchanted with it. He 
has exceptional talent as a speaker, and as a writer 
who knows how to set forth his thought as clearly as 
he carries it in his head. Jamais de quiproquo, jamais 
de malentendu, et avec ga, logique et consequent tout le 
long du traitS. If that man set out from the standpoint 
of Socialism, he would be magnificent in his arguments, 
and his nation would be grateful to him throughout its 
whole history ; for a sound idea, explained by so fine a 
talent, remains in the people's minds forever, even if 
at first it is not accepted in its entirety. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OP RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 269 

"At all events, if we take literally all the aspirations 
expressed by your present President, he would make a 
remarkable reformer if he should try with sincerity to 
make over a constitution which no longer harmonizes 
with the rights and the prosperity of the people whose 
ruler he is. 

"Many, many of my old friends and comrades have 
been passing away of late years. I look upon myself 
as an old tree among a crowd of youths, and I try to be 
understood by my juniors, and to be indulgent towards 
them. 

"I feel strong till now, but seeing how quickly my 
old friends are carried off by illness and death, I think 
sometimes everything is possible ; one good cold might 
easily make an end of the matter. 

*'I have on my table one little picture representing 
Cornelia de Bey, 'the most active brain in Chicago,' 
as one magazine says. I remember so well this noble 
Hollandaise, who captured me at first sight. I passed 
a night at her house, and saw how much she has to do. 
There was with her a teacher, a different type, but very 
accomplished too. Cornelia is a figure distinguished 
from top to foot. I like her so dearly. Is she well 
now ? The portrait of Miss Addams shows her much 
older, and I wonder how she can suffice to fulfill such 
a lot of different matters, to be everywhere at once. 
Active like an American; always ready for the need. 
Forgive me for my silence, and for my many mistakes. 
You might fancy me ungrateful from the fewness of 
my letters ; yet my heart is full of thankfulness. Give 
my good wishes to all who will accept them." 



270 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

To Miss Wald. September 20, 1913. 

"The snow already covers the mountainous borders 
of the superb Lena, and frost will soon fill the waters 
with masses of ice, which will interrupt all communi- 
cations, leaving us isolated on our little island, entirely 
engulfed by cold, ill treated by the north wind. 

"It is strange! Every time that I am asked to 
speak about myself, I am always confused, and find 
nothing to say. Very likely, if I had paid more 
attention to the outward circumstances of my life, 
there would be enough to talk about, that would fill 
more than a book. But, ever since my childhood, I 
have been in the habit of creating a spiritual life, an 
interior world, which corresponded better with my 
spiritual tastes. This imaginary world has had the 
upper hand over the real world in its details, over all 
that is transient. 

"The aim of our existence, the perfecting of human 
nature, has always been present in my vision, in my 
mind. The route, the direction that we ought to 
take, in order to approach our ideal, was for me a 
problem, the solution of which absorbed the efforts 
of my entire life. I was implacable to myself for my 
weaknesses, knowing that to serve a divine cause, we 
must be at least honest in all things ; we must sin- 
cerely love the object of our devotion, — that is to 
say, in this case, humanity. 

"These meditations, this interior spiritual work, 
and a strong imagination, which always carried me far 
beyond the present, permitting me to inhabit the most 
longed-for regions, all combined to attract but very 
little of my attention to daily circumstances. With- 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 271 

out doubt I have had suffering in my Hfe, but I have 
had moments of joy, even of happiness. It is also 
true that the struggle with my faihngs, with my habits 
engrafted by a worldly education, has cost me more or 
less dear. The misery of those near to me has torn 
my heart to the extreme. In a word, my life has 
passed in the same way as a bark thrown on the mercy 
of a sea often stormy. But, as the ideal was always 
there, present in my heart and in my mind, it guided 
me in my course, it absorbed me to such a degree that 
I did not feel, in their fulness, the influence of passing 
events. The duty to serve the divine cause of hu- 
manity in its entirety, that of my people in particular, 
has been the law of my life — the supreme law, whose 
voice quelled my passions, my desires, my weaknesses. 

"This duty, cultivated from infancy by religious 
sentiment, then fortified in its certitude by attentive 
analysis of life in its entirety, formed the conviction 
that there is nothing in the world so profitable for 
certain happiness as to serve an impeccable cause, a 
cause the noblest, the highest among all known to the 
mind of man. 

"For it is only in serving the cause that we inevi- 
tably perfect ourselves, since it demands the most 
uplifting transport of our souls ; and that makes us 
happy, our conscience being tranquil, our creative 
spirit being sure of victory. 

"1 am sure that our Alice, as well as Aunt Isabel, 
remembers how difficult it was for me to speak about 
myself, when that was exacted of me. Since I live in 
my thoughts more than by emotion, it is my thoughts 
which I have to confess more than the facts of my life. 
These facts, to tell the truth, are confused enough in 



272 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

my memory, and often I should not be able to relate 
them in all their details. Also, in conversing with 
those who care to listen to me, I feel that I am monot- 
onous, for it is always my ideals and my abstract obser- 
vations that I want to communicate to my listeners. 
I have studied a great deal in order to understand even 
ever so little of the origin of the human soul, in order 
to understand more or less its complexity of today. 

"There lies my only strength, so to speak, and I 
continue my study, knowing how complex my object 
of study is, and what an innumerable quantity of 
different combinations, of types, have been formed 
during the long history of the laboratory where is 
prepared the supreme fusion called the human soul. 

"Respect for the individual of the human species, 
and adoration of the intellectual treasure of this indi- 
vidual, ought to form the centre of all knowledge, of 
all ideals. It is only in venerating the human being 
as the most beautiful creation of the world ; it is only 
in understanding the beauty and the indestructible 
grandeur of an intelligence illuminated by love and 
knowledge, that the education of the young generation 
will bring the desired fruits. 

"To be better understood, my dear Lillian, I turn 
to comparison : Suppose any one had devoted his 
whole life with enthusiasm to a science, which capti- 
vated all his energy, all his faculties ; certainly he 
would remain indifferent (cold) to the details of his 
own existence, having his mind fixed on the object 
of his studies. A subject so interesting, so dear to me 
that I could scarcely ever detach my own self from 
the existence of humanity in its entirety, or from that 
of my people in particular — did I have time or de- 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 273 

sire to stop and think about myself, or the particular- 
ities of my personal life? All seem to me transient, 
insignificant, in view of the happiness which, sooner 
or later, must be the fate of the human world. I 
myself have never experienced any disillusionment, 
for, having in view the history of the past and the 
present of our race, taking into consideration the 
capacity of my soul to love without ceasing, and to 
wish to go on instructing, I understand that the tend- 
ency of our nature towards good is a gift inseparable 
from the character of man, and that all progress de- 
pends only upon seeing clearly, acquired by experi- 
ence and knowledge. That which is dear to me above 
all is that, notwithstanding my habit of living rather 
in an abstract world, in the regions of my imagination, 
I have in no way lost the ardor of my love for those 
near me, and that all their misfortunes touch me much 
more profoundly than my own. Probably I owe this 
invaluable gift as much to my natural capacity as to 
the continual practice of interesting myself in the fate 
of those by whom I am surrounded. 

"Lillian, my friend! I hope to be understood by 
you, seeing that you pass your life in the same way that 
I pass mine. It is not your personal happiness which 
has been the object of your care, and if any one asked 
you what your past has been, you would have to 
reply : ' I worked for the happiness of others, and by 
that means I forged my own.'" 

To June Barrows Mussey. On picture card. 
November 4, 1913. 

"I know you are out of doors every day, like the 
little girl here, who is enjoying herself with her parents 



274 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

in a charming nook of a Russian forest. But I fear 
the cold, and my pehsse is heavy, so I cannot walk 
long or far. Sitting in my room I read many Amer- 
ican papers and magazines, and then I think of our 
dearest Nonna. I have sent her book to a place where 
there are hundreds of our people that will profit by 
studying it." 

November 17-30, 1913. 

"She (Mrs. Barrows) was among us like an angel; 
and so she has passed away without trouble, never 
abusing her greatness of mind and feelings towards 
the masses that surrounded her with all their imper- 
fections and meanness. She was above the world 
she inhabited, and, understanding the weakness which 
is yet familiar to the population of the earth, not only 
was she indulgent to it, but she worked her life long 
to improve, to comfort, to uplift. And she was 
beloved for her golden heart, for her friendship, for 
her delicate attention to the needs of each separate 
person. She was fit to be a mother, a wife, a sister, a 
friend; she never wished to be a benefactress, to im- 
pose, to be looked upon as an imperative being, that 
ought to be a model to be praised and marveled at. 
She was a good and wise spirit, that came to us to 
show how one can live and die, always ready to help 
and to improve. And now that people say she is 
gone, I see a blue star watching over our sorrowful 
heads, and pouring upon us such a soft and delightful 
light that we do not perceive the sadness and the 
darkness that surround us, for our hearts aspire to 
realize the light everywhere, to fill every heart with 
it. This desire makes us better and stronger, and this 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 275 

interior force develops the light of our own hearts, 
which in its turn continues the work begun by Isabel 
C. Barrows, and will never fail to do so, for the source 
of that light was and remains inexhaustible. 

"A person who is not devoid of sense can never 
become a pessimist or a sceptic, after being acquainted 
with such a soul." 

To Miss Blackwell. November 20, 1913. 

"It is wonderful and beautiful, such a friendship as 
ours. Two souls found each other, and were bound 
by a sympathy that nothing can shake or disturb. 
What happiness to be sure of a treasure that is im- 
mortal!" 



CHAPTER XVI 

Eager to resume her work for the revolution, and 
urged by her colleagues to rejoin them, Madame 
Breshkovsky made a daring attempt to escape, which 
very nearly succeeded. 



George Lazareff to Miss Blackwell. December 14, 

Clarens, Switzerland. 



1913 



"Baboushka is captured! 

"The account printed in all the Russian news- 
papers says she was accustomed to take her dinner 
daily at the house of her comrade exile Vladimiroff. 
Six spies, two at a time, regularly followed her to and 
fro. Across the road from her house a sentry-box 
had been built for the two spies who kept their eyes 
upon it day and night. On November 18 (Old Style) 
or December 1, she went out as usual to Vladimiroff 's 
to dinner. As usual, the spies followed her. But in 
the evening one of the exiles, Andreeff, dressed in her 
clothes, came back to her house in company with some 
friends, followed by the spies. The latter did not 
perceive the trick. Meanwhile Baboushka had taken 
horses that were ready, and started away. For some 
days the spies were not disturbed, though she did not 
go out. Her dinner was sent regularly to her room, 

276 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 277 

as had happened before when she was not well. Every 
night the light was shining as usual. ^ 

"On November 21 (December 7) it was discovered 
that she had fled. To escape she would have had to 
get seven or eight days' start, in order to reach Irkutsk 
on horseback (over 1000 kilometers). Madness fol- 
lowed. Telegrams were sent to the Governor of 
Irkutsk, to the Minister of the Interior at St. Peters- 
burg. The order was given to catch her at all costs. 
One thousand rubles was the reward. 

"November 23 (December 6) the Governor of Ir- 
kutsk with eight gendarmes and fifty policemen started 
to meet her and intercept her on the way. And, to 
everybody's astonishment, they met her only seven 
miles from Irkutsk! How it was possible I cannot 
understand. In two hours more she would have 
reached a safe shelter in Irkutsk. The soldiers met a 
coach with a passenger, who was a well-dressed gentle- 
man. Unfortunately, it was discovered that this 
gentleman was Baboushka, who was immediately 
arrested and conveyed to the Irkutsk prison. 

"It is a great blow to all her friends. But her 
anxiety, I know, is not for herself, but for others. 
She bade me in advance do my utmost to console you 
and all her friends if the attempt was unsuccessful. 

"I think the failure was due to some want of fore- 
sight. November 23 (the very day of her arrest) is 
her birthday, and usually she received by post some 
presents which required her personal receipt. Reg- 
istered letters and parcels in such a remote place 
would arrive before and after her birthday. She knew 
all this. And I believe she found the circumstances 
especially favorable if she determined to disregard it." 

* See Appendix. 



ST'B LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

To her son Nicholas. Central Prison, Irkutsk, Siberia. 
November 30-December 12, 1913. 

"My dear Kola : I write you from the Irkutsk prison, 
having been arrested on my way to this city. The 
conditions of my life compelled me to leave the town 
without permission, and about my future fate I know 
nothing. I have written my lawyer Prince Eristoff (of 
St. Petersburg) all the particulars of this affair. I do not 
know whether I shall be allowed to receive an answer. 

"But, as I know all my friends are anxious about my 
health, I ask you, my dear, to let them know that I 
am quite well, and for the rest everything is all right. 
I have everything necessary, and have money enough 
in hand. 

"I have begun to read again, but I am sorry I have 
not so large a choice of reading matter as I had before. 
I kiss and bless you all. 

" Your Mamma, Catherine Breshkovsky." 

To Miss Blackwell. January 13-26, 1914. 

"I have been notified that I must not send or re- 
ceive any letters in English, because none of the police 
here can read that language. So I will try to write 
you in French to tell you that my health is still the 
same, and that neither you nor my other friends need 
have any fears for me. 

"During my last months at Kirensk, my life was 
as disagreeable as it is here, so I am not suffering just 
now any more than I did there." 

For this attempt to escape, she was kept in solitary 
confinement at Irkutsk for about two years, and then 
banished to the far north. 

Her letters from Irkutsk prison continue cheerful. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 279 

To Ellen Starr, April 15-28, 1914. 

"There is nothing more beautiful than to be trusted 
by our neighbors, to know that nothing can change 
the relations established between them and us. With 
this certainty, one feels strong, rich, superior to every 
misfortune. 

"I look upon our life as a long journey, full of ob- 
stacles and difficulties of every kind. The traveler 
is always subject to the risk that he may not reach 
in his life-time the sacred mountain which he has 
chosen for his goal. But when once he is sure of his 
choice, and of the approval of those whom he respects, 
he marches on till his last breath, without growing 
discouraged. Beautiful Dame History, who accepts 
us as her companions, does not show us the general 
perspective in detail ; all we can ask of her is that the 
direction shall be true for the whole time during which 
the life of humanity is to last." 

Madame Breshkovsky once said to me, "My life 
has been like a long journey. If an opportunity of 
personal happiness came to me, I took it only as I 
might pick a flower by the way, or eat a bonbon." 

To George Lazareff. May 12-25, 1914. 

"May has come to Irkutsk, too. The Lena River 
is free from ice. I feel that the boats for the transpor- 
tation of the exiles are ready for their work. I expect 
any minute to hear: 'Be ready! get up!' And, as 
before starting for the other world, I want to say : 
' Good bye ! good bye ! ' to all my friends, to all my 
dearest : ' Till a new place ! ' I do not fear the coming 
journey. Lately the good people in Irkutsk and in 



280 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

Russia have nourished me abundantly, so as to make 
me gain not only in strength but in fat also. The cold 
winds of the Lena River do not frighten me any more. 
I have cakes, sweets of every kind ; bird's milk alone 
is lacking. But I hope to get that when I reach the 
fabulous ' Isle of Bouyan, that lies in the Ocean ' [expres- 
sion from a Russian tale]. Oh, there are many birds 
there, the penguins and others ! I hope to renew all 
my correspondence with my friends. Be sure that 
from every possible 'Isle of Bouyan' on the coming 
journey I shall try to write you. How glad I am ! 
How many cakes I have ! I am sorry I cannot treat 
you all. Do not forget me. The only food I need is 
good spirit. 

"Yours forever, Kitty." 

A series of postcards brought loving messages to 
her friends, and said that she kept well. She spoke of 
receiving "a shower of cards" from America. Mr. 
Lazareff reported that she often wrote letters to him 
in Russian verses, and that he wondered at her talent. 

To Miss Blackwell. June 8, 1914. 

"Tulips, daffodils and other spring flowers rejoice 
my solitude and carry my thoughts to you. I shall 
be forced to spend the coming year alone, as I have 
the past six months. The lack of human society is 
hard for me to bear, certainly, but perhaps my health 
will not suffer from it as much as my spirits. 

"Mabel has done me a great service in sending me 
the Book of Hymns. I am copying them out in order 
not to forget the English language, and I am studying 
them in order to see better how deeply the human 
heart is penetrated with ideal sentiments. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 281 

*'I think that poetry, history, and even a magazine 
(of last year) might be sent to me in Enghsh." 

May 13-26, 1914. 
"In a few days the first party of convicts will start 
for the north. Wliether I am to go with it or not 
they do not tell me. The summer is short here, but 
it rejuvenates me all the same, and if I can spend it 
in the open air, I shall be ready to meet the winter, 
however severe." 

August 4-17, 1914. 
"Remember me to all our mutual friends. Tell 
them I am bearing my hard lot bravely, and that if 
my physical strength should some day forsake me, it 
will not be the fault of my soul, which remains always 
calm, accustomed as it is to be surprised at nothing." 

September 17-30, 1914. 

"I am reading with great pleasure Dickens's 'A 
Child's History of England,' a gift from over the sea, 
sent in such stormy weather ! 

"Words freeze on the lips, the imagination refuses 
to picture the excesses with which the history of our 
days is filled. Without being resigned, one can only 
stand open-mouthed, as if struck by thunder. Never- 
theless, in spite of all the countless misfortunes that 
accompany universal war, my heart, all bruised though 
it is, does not foresee a bad end for humanity. I have 
great hope that the minds as well as the hearts of our 
world will be purified and enlightened, after passing 
through such sinister trials. 

"Already for many years the wisest and noblest 
voices have declared against all wars between the 



282 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

nations, and have foretold that militarism, when it 
has attained its highest point, must end by anni- 
hilating itself. And the sentiment of indignation 
which is invading all minds against the insolence of 
Germany proves that the people are for culture and 
not for destruction. The evil is horrible, for its depth 
as well as its intensity; but better days will come. 

"All these years we have been losing the noblest 
hearts. Felix [Volkhovsky] is no more; brother 
Egor [Lazareff] feels weak, wearied with crushing toil, 
which has been his lot all his life. I feel well, despite 
the bars; and when weather permits, I go out for a 
few minutes to take the air and get the numbness out 
of my feet. 

"I have just read 'De Profundis,' by Oscar Wilde; 
and what an immense difference I find between his 
psychology and mine ! How much to be pitied are 
people who have never known the solidarity of human 
hearts and souls ! 

"I need postcards for children, and nobody sends 
me any. Into my letters to grown people I often slip 
pictures, which delight the little ones. 

"In eight months I expect to be out of prison." 

November 5-18, 1914. 

"My health does not grow worse, and I believe that 
I shall get through the winter fairly well. I am be- 
coming more and more prudent, for I would not for 
anything in the world disappoint my friends' hopes of 
seeing me safe and sound next spring. 

"I often transport myself to Hull House, to greet its 
residents. The face of each of them lives in my remem- 
brance. I must tell you that literature never leaves so 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 283 

strong an impression upon me as human presences; 
and I have never in my Hfe quoted a phrase from any 
writer, while the words, the expressions, and the 
actions of human beings imprint themselves so deeply 
on my mind that they remain engraved there forever. 
It is because humanity is my passion ; and the women 
are my hope of seeing it some day perfected. 

*'This winter I have reading matter enough, which 
ensures me against ennui, the more as the prisoners 
are allowed to read the cablegrams about the war, 
which, in turn, give rise to thought and meditation 
on many subjects." 

To Miss Dudley. January 17-30, 1915. 

*'0h, how fortunate one is to have friends ! There 
is a Russian proverb (very old) which says: 'Don't 
have a hundred rubles, but have a hundred friends.' 
In Russian it is in rhyme. That was said in times 
when rubles were very rare, and every ruble was con- 
sidered a fortune. Now friends are looked upon as an 
invaluable gift, for each of them takes the place of 
thousands of rubles for an intelligent being. I always 
realize the truth of this proverb, for, having nothing 
of my own, I am provided with all necessities, even 
with luxuries. What would have become of me with- 
out all these kindnesses that the good Lord sends me ! 

**In four months I think I shall be sent to the north 
surely. 

"Arthur Bullard is doubly close to me for having 
seen Russia, the Russian peasant, and for having car- 
ried away with him a souvenir which will make him 
always a friend of our country, entirely disorganized 
though it may be. I do not like to assure the world of 



284 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSL\N REVOLUTION 

the strength inherent in our people; it ought to be 
proved before speaking of it ; but for myself, I believe 
in it with all the fervor of a soul that feels itself close 
to the soul of its people. Already the last ten years 
show the gigantic progress that is being made in the 
very entrails of our country. May the good God bless 
us all ! And He will do it, since our spirit aspires to 
the good of all." 

To Miss Blackwell. January 17-30, 1915. 

"The victory (of woman suffrage) in Nevada and 
Montana is another proof of what well-directed energy 
can do ; and it is for you, my daughter, to rejoice in 
it with pride — you who have followed so perfectly 
the course begun by your mother, who by her whole 
life proved the worth of a woman at the height of 
moral power. Honor to the American woman, since she 
leads her neighbors to the regions of a pure and noble 
life ! Very certainly, the women of other countries will 
not delay to follow her, and the world will be rid of 
these horrible cataclysms, which destroy in a moment 
all that humanity has worked at for centuries. 

"Brother George writes me long letters full of 
painful interest ; but I feel that nothing can turn aside 
the movement of history toward a beautiful summer 
day. Is it not so? 

"I want for nothing; my friends are untiringly 
kind, and I have ended by being ashamed of all the 
delicacies with which they surround me. 

"The American postcards for children are often very 
comical. They furnish me themes for fables in verse 
which I compose for the little ones, and which make 
me laugh myself." 



MTTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 285 

To Miss Blackwell. March 10, 1915. 

"I have 'Pioneer Work for Women', by Doctor 
EHzabeth Blackwell. I have read a few pages, and 
like it so much that I am saving it to read in case I 
should be sent into distant and solitary exile. 

"I am suffering from the cold, and find it hard to 
breathe, but I hope to regain strength when out of 
prison." 

George Lazareff to Miss Blackwell. March 18, 1915. 

"I have just received a long letter from Baboushka. 
She has entered upon her seventy-second year. She 
says she has decided to make a ' truck ' with the Parcse 
(the Fates). She has determined to throw off the 
seventy years of her life, and to begin her new era 
with her seventy years' jubilee. She is now to be 
about two years old. She says that perhaps the Fates 
will not perceive this 'truck', and will continue to spin 
her thread of life." 

To Miss Blackwell. April 2-15, 1915. 

"The news that Miss Katherine B. Davis has been 
appointed superintendent of prisons is a great piece 
of good fortune in my eyes. It is high time that women 
should begin to have charge of the institutions that 
regulate the lives and fates of so many unfortunates. 
All the educational establishments for young people 
ought- ±o be confided to them also. 

"I am glad that alcohol has been suppressed in 
Russia, and I wish it may remain so forever. The war 
is going to open people's eyes to many defects, and this 
will be a stimulus to the population, and will compel 
it to regulate its living conditions better." 



286 LITTLE GRANDMOTHEE OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

To Miss Blackwell. May 3, 1915. 

"To-day I got the letter in which you speak of some 
day having the story of my Hfe. Dear child, I tell 
you seriously that I do not know my own history. 
I have not felt it. It was always my soul that was in 
action, and the direction taken by it from my child- 
hood has never changed, so that its history would be 
monotonous. The details of my material life inter- 
ested me so little that I do not remember them clearly, 
and every time that it happens to me to read the mem- 
oirs of my old comrades, I am always surprised at 
what they say about me. It makes me smile. I have 
to make an effort of memory to recall the past, so far 
as it concerns myself. The only thing I can say with 
certainty about myself is that all my life I have wanted 
to be good and worthy, and that up to this moment I 
am correcting my faults and imperfections. In regard 
to others, it is their moral inclination, their psychology, 
which are the object of my observations, rather than 
anything else. Also I must say that it was always 
the future that especially preoccupied me. The past 
and the present touch me in so far as they lead 
up to, in so far as they give hope of such or such a 
degree of perfectionment of human life. The progress 
of my people — I think of it continually. I follow 
with eager interest the progress of other countries, 
knowing how interdependent they are. I am always 
absorbed in my ideas." 

To Miss Blackwell. 

"This is May 12. On May 13-18 I shall set out, 
probably for Kirensk. It is much better than to pass 
the summer in prison, where one feels the lack of air. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 287 

Just think, my friends have insisted upon my letting 
my mouth be filled with artificial teeth, which has 
already been done, and very skilfully, thanks to an 
able and attentive dentist. Now it is my eyes, which 
have served me so well hitherto, that are in need of 
repair, since I am getting cataract on both. The 
doctor says that they can be operated on in six months. 
It is growing hard for me to read, but I am sure of 
finding people to read to me as soon as I am reunited 
to my comrades. I can still sew for hours together, 
when the material is light-colored. The operation cer- 
tainly could not be performed at Kirensk, but they may 
let me come to Irkutsk to have it done. At any rate, 
I am already accustomed to the idea of much privation, 
and my soul is ready to encounter anything. This 
must be enough to keep you from making a great outcry 
over my fate, which seems to me always an enviable one. 
Provided you keep well, I am sure to be cheerful." 

To Miss Blackwell. May 22- June 2, 1915. 

"I write to you still in front of my iron table and 
on my iron stool. How many days will pass before I 
leave them ? They promise to apply to me — to me 
also — the new order which permits the exiles, after 
six months' residence in the place appointed by the 
government, to choose the place that suits them best, 
with the exception of the capital city. In my case it 
is Irkutsk that would be forbidden, but all the small 
cities would be open to me. The nearest one to Irkutsk 
is Balagansk, and that is where I am asking to be 
sent, since my health would be better protected. In 
case of serious illness, I should be only one hundred 
versts from the best medical help." 



S88 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

To Miss Dudley. May 12-25, 1915. 

"From patriotism as well as from indignation against 
the ferocity of the Germans, I am hoping for the vic- 
tory of the Allies, And then the whole world would 
be gainers, by getting back to a state of peace, and being 
able to continue its work of culture. Our great coun- 
try needs it badly." 

June 2-15, 1915. 

"Alas, the summer is passing, but I do not move. 
I am still ignorant as to what is to become of me. 

"Thank heaven, after a month of terrible efforts, 
the war is resuming its normal course, and the hope of 
seeing it ended to the advantage of progress in general, 
strengthens the soul and makes one forget personal 
misfortunes." 

To Miss Blackwell. June 14-27, 1915. 

"Now I can tell you what my address is to be: 
Yakutsk, Asia. My friends' efforts to have me al- 
lowed to live in a more southerly place have failed, 
and I shall be two thousand versts further north than 
in Kirensk. It does not much surprise me ; and then, 
as I told you before, life at Kirensk was full of constant 
and intolerable persecutions ; so that no change could 
affright me. I am only sorry for my two extra months 
of prison, during our short summer; for the convoy 
will not start till July. 

"The cold at Yakutsk rises above 55°; the winter 
lasts eight months ; there is no spring, for the ground 
is still covered with snow in May, and in August 
the nights are freezing. The two months of summer 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 289 

are sometimes very hot, and make it possible to grow 
a few vegetables. 

*'But, as it is the capital of the province of Yakutsk, 
which stretches for thousands of versts in every direc- 
tion, there are some doctors there, and more people 
than in Kirensk. There are some political exiles, 
too, so you may be easy about me. I shall try not to 
lose what is left of my health, and it is not impossible, 
thanks to the care you all take of me. 

"The longer I live, the more I realize that the foun- 
dation of my being is an ardent and invincible love for 
the human race, which, as I believe, has in itself all 
the germs of an endless intellectual ' perf ectionment ', 
an ascent to a moral life that will make it infinitely 
happy. This habit of living in human life as a whole 
has made me so associate myself with the universal 
psychology that I lose myself in it, and care little 
about my individual fate, which is not dear to me, 
once it is separated from the general course." 

A political exile in Irkutsk saw Baboushka, at the 
moment of her setting off for Yakutsk. He wrote : 

"She has become a little deaf; her shaggy hair is 
snow-white ; but spiritually she is as strong as ever. 
On seeing her, at the first moment, I could not keep 
from weeping, hiding my face on her breast. 'Look 
up, let me see what is the matter with you, rascal!' 
she said. '1 don't like to see sad faces of my little 
children. Cheer up, my boy, and speak loud, like a 
good oflBcer at the front. I am a little deaf.' I looked 
at her ; her motherly mild eyes were full of tears ; she 
was smiling. I was not able to utter a word. The 
other boys and girls were awaiting their turn." 



290 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

To Miss Blackwell. Yakutsk, August 1-13, 1915. 

"For two weeks I have been taking walks around 
the town of Yakutsk, visiting groves and meadows. 
I am happy to breathe a fresh air, very pure here, in 
the large deserts. It is cold enough, but cheering to 
the organism, eager for oxygen and ozone. I feel 
much better." 

It was reported that Madame Breshkovsky would 
not be allowed to stay at Yakutsk, but would be sent 
still farther north, to Bulun, a tiny group of native 
huts, under the Arctic circle. Strong protests against 
her banishment to Yakutsk appeared in the American 
press, and a petition to the Russian government was 
started. Suddenly she was notified that she might 
return to Irkutsk. The winter was closing in, and 
it was not certain that she could get through, but she 
started immediately. 

George Lazareff to Miss Dudley. November 15, 1915. 

"Yesterday I received a new letter from Baboushka, 
written on the eve of her departure from Yakutsk. 
She had been glad and surprised when the authorities 
declared that she would not be sent further north, 
but she had not suspected that there was a possi- 
bility of her being allowed to return south. All the 
attempts made by many Socialist members of the 
Douma to get the government to leave her in the 
south of Siberia had been unsuccessful. So it was a 
surprise to everyone when she was unexpectedly al- 
lowed to turn back, after a tedious journey of three 
thousand miles. 

"I cannot find any reasonable explanation of this 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 291 

turn of affairs, except the impression made on the 
government by Mr. Lewis Herreshoff's letter, which 
I forwarded to Baboushka, and which was intercepted 
by the government, about the intention of the Ameri- 
can friends to get up a petition in Baboushka's behalf. 
I believe the government resolved to let her come back 
to the south as though by their own will, and thus to 
prevent any agitation in America. 

" In an earlier letter she had written : 

"'I have been introduced into a good colony of the 
hearty men and women, the political exiles, a large 
number of whom have been sent here after spending 
many years at hard labor. They have married here, 
and have children. The destitution is great. My 
baggage has not arrived. I have no warm clothes, 
no money, and I am indebted to my friends of the 
colony. They are so kind, and touchingly attentive 
to me. A young man, after his work in some office, 
comes daily to me and Mrs. Lydia Yezersky, an old 
friend of mine, and spends the rest of the day in tak- 
ing care of us both. In her youth Mrs. Yezersky was 
a good pianist. After so many long and hard adven- 
tures, she found herself in Yakutsk, and somehow 
procured a piano, and now I really enjoy her playing. 
. . . The touching care of my comrades gives me 
great concern; they are so poor, trying to earn their 
livelihood by all sorts of hard work. The war has an 
awful effect, living is dear, the products are rare; 
communication with Russia is long and difficult. Many 
of the exiles have lost their friends and relatives, who 
can no longer support the poor exiles. Everything is 
disorganized in Russia. At the first opportunity send 
me all the help you possibly can.'" 



292 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

She went up the Lena on the last boat of the season, 
until the floating ice stopped navigation. She was 
halted at the little hamlet of Vitim. 

To Miss Blaekwell. Vitim, a little port on the Lena 
River. October 1-13, 1915. 

"Amidst the ice of the Lena, 2000 miles from Yakutsk 
and 1400 miles from Irkutsk, waiting a practicable way 
to continue my travel, in a little home of my good 
friends I sit before a little table to inform you, my faith- 
ful friends in America, that there is no weather, no 
difficulty strong enough to crumble my health to 
pieces, to kill me to the ground. In a month there 
will be thick ice covering the Lena, and by that time 
I hope to find a companion with whom I shall reach 
Irkutsk." 

To Miss Blaekwell. Irkutsk, December 14-27, 1915. 

"For two weeks I have been in Irkutsk, in the house 
of my excellent friends, surrounded by the most careful 
attention. I have now the opportunity to regain my 
health somewhat, for here we have many skilful doctors. 
But (there is always a but in our country) the govern- 
ment of the town has encircled me with such a regime 
that I cannot make a step alone, but every minute 
when out of doors am persecuted by a row of police- 
men, and one of them enters the house and even the 
apartment where I am staying, at home or anywhere 
else. Quite a prison regime. Such a state of things is 
little comfortable, yet I do not wonder, and will wait 
further. 

"It is not difficult to wait, having so excellent 
moments in life as are part of my existence. Here I 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 293 

have received a large packet of letters and papers from 
America. 

"Do not be sorry for my eyes. The four months 
that I spent out of doors, during the summer, were the 
best remedy I could have had. You see, I can write, 
and read all I get from you. I read books too, but 
little, for I have comrades ready to help me. The 
oculist says my eyes will serve me long enough if 
they are carefully used, and many years will pass be- 
fore the cataracts are ripe. I am safe but for the 
persecution. 

"Irkutsk is not a large town, only 150,000 inhabit- 
ants ; yet, being the capital of Eastern Siberia, it is 
the centre of the intelligent forces of the country, and 
has many institutions of culture of various kinds. For 
my part, I am separated from people and institutions. 

"How glad I am you are in communication with my 
brother [George Lazareff]. He helps me with money, 
and I pray God to secure him and his friends full safety ; 
especially now, when everyone is laboring hard for the 
sake of millions of desolated people, deprived of all that 
is necessary for human life. The fugitives from all the 
frontiers encumber even the towns of Siberia, and 
provisions are growing dearer every day. It is the 
time when all the good elements and all the worse are 
working under a full head of steam. This war will be 
the proving stone of the capacities of all humanity, 
and especially of those of the cultured people and coun- 
tries. A great show of the world's progress. 

January 6-19, 1916. 
"It has been my turn to be ill, ten days lying in bed 
and suffering seriously. But the efforts of my friends 



294 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

and a set of good scientists of medicine have worked 
real miracles. I now feel strong enough to read and 
write, and walk about the house, keeping a rigid regime. 
It was an inflammation of the liver, kidneys, stomach 
and bowels, followed by a persistent fever. The 
weather is awful. Notwithstanding the frost of 40°, 
it is only to-day that the beautiful Angora river has 
been frozen. Until now its streaming waves have 
filled the town with unwholesome vapors. Every 
nook in Siberia has its own poison. I am too sensitive 
to the cold. Yet there is no danger now. Your dear 
letters reach me, those of others, too, and I am happy." 

To Miss Blackwell. February 9-22, 1916. 

*'You say that the women of the Westover School * 
mean to send me $50.00 a month. It will be a great 
relief, and my gratitude will be profound. You wrote 
me once that many persons said : ' She would receive 
much more help if she used the money for her own 
needs, but she gives it all away.' 

"I think that if my sharing with the poor makes me 
happy, that is all any one can contribute to my welfare. 
I am not only happy when mending the naked needs of 
my comrades, but am seriously unhappy when, knowing 
those needs, I am not able to help. So every ruble, 
every dollar, is a joy, a hope, a possibility of rendering 
a service to those who lack the bare necessaries of life. 
Even when a prey to fierce inflammations, I never for- 
get my obligations toM^^ards those to whom I have 
promised my help, and I cannot rest till my waiting 
comrades are provided for as arranged." 

^At Middlebury, Connecticut. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 295 

(Undated) 

"Knowing well the conditions in which I live, I 
destroy not only addresses, but even letters from 
relatives and friends, every time lamenting these 
sacrifices. Long experience has taught me to expect 
unfortunate occurrences where there is no reason for 
them whatever. Once I wrote to an old woman friend 
of mine asking her to send pumpkin seeds, which doctors 
say are a good remedy for tape-worms, which abound 
on the shores of the Lena and the Baikal. Owing to 
her correspondence with me, a search was made at the 
old woman's, and the gendarmes decided that * tape- 
worms' meant 'gendarmes', and 'pumpkin seeds', 
'explosive substances.' The old woman was sentenced 
to exile, and only after long and urgent solicitations 
and explanations was the 'penalty' reduced to two 
years' police surveillance. 

"There have been many such cases. I do not begin 
a correspondence with anybody, do not become ac- 
quainted with anybody, knowing beforehand that it 
will do people no good. 

"My whole present life, much like imprisonment, is 
a conclusive proof of how zealously the police are trying 
to compromise me and those coming in contact with 
me. It is not enough that .a number of policemen and 
gendarmes are on guard, day and night, in the yard 
of the house where I live, examining and frightening 
with their electric lamps all who come and go in the 
evening (in the city people are free only in the evening 
— all are working) ; but in addition the police captain 
forces his way into the house at any time of day or 
night, to convince himself that I am here. Neither 



296 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

my illness nor the presence of doctors and nurses pre- 
vented him from ' verifying ' me in bed. 

"Once I said to him : 'You won't even let one die in 
peace,' but that did not keep him from breaking into 
the house at three a.m., when the policeman had reported 
that at two o'clock a woman had left this house for the 
maternity hospital. 

*'A soldier is in the habit of visiting my landlord's 
cook. A few days ago three of us were sitting in the 
evening, waiting for the samovar, but it did not come. 
It was already ten o'clock, half-past ten, and the 
samovar did not arrive. The kitchen here is across the 
hall, and our landlady went to find out what prevented 
us from having tea. Policemen and gendarmes were 
searching the kitchen, and right there were the cook 
and the unfortunate soldier. That was a search! 
They had not even thought of notifying the landlord. 
The cook was wanted at the police office. There she was 
questioned, reports were made out, and all the cook's 
love correspondence was retained, to examine into its 
meaning. Owing to my indisposition and my dislike 
for kitchen odors, I have not been in the kitchen since 
my arrival, and have not seen the soldier a single time. 
The policemen, who are always peeping in at the 
windows, particularly the cook's, know, of course, that 
I should neither see her guests nor speak with them; 
but if I had been in the kitchen at the time of the 
soldier's visit, what would have come of it? The 
police are obliged to bring information, even if they 
have to suck it out of their thumbs." 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 297 

To Miss Dudley. March 19-31, 1916. 

"Please do not send any petition on my account. In 
the first place, it will be of no use, and in the second, 
I am against such matters." 

To Ellen Starr, with a picture card of a peasant woman. 

(Undated) 

"Nothing is so wonderfully majestic as a good sample 
of a peasant woman. She is robust, benevolent and 
condescending. Conscious of her vivid strength, she 
works and surveys like an energetic queen, fearing 
nothing, and acting for ten persons at once. All her 
dozen children do not embarrass her. Every one gets 
his place, his occupation, and she rules the house just 
by words and smiles. Such women are the benefit of 
every people, and the blessing of the world. 

"Do not confuse the true Russians with others who 
belong to the Russian empire. The psychology of our 
people differs not only from that of other races, but even 
from that of other Slavonic tribes, such as Poles, Czechs, 
Bulgarians, etc. Our Russian women are not only 
brave, but endowed with a delicious tenderness of heart, 
and both these qualities make them unselfish, ready to 
help, and to take upon their shoulders every hard work. 

"In general, I think women are the finest part of 
humanity. I respect and love them best of everything 
in the world. Almost all my correspondents are 
women ; only the poor boys have the privilege of being 
answered richly, for they are little children, and ought 
to grow big men." 

In a very grateful letter to the young women of the 
Westover School she wrote (April 22, 1916) : "No 



298 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

vocation is so needed, so beneficent for the present and 
so fruitful for the future, as the rational and moral 
education of children." 

In May she was transferred to the little city of 
Minussinsk in Eniseisk, about a hundred miles from 
the frontier of China. She was not sorry to have a 
change. "I always remember the saying of our peas- 
ants," she wrote, '"If worse, yet different.'" In 
Minussinsk the climate was warmer. She enjoyed 
much more freedom, and her health improved. 
*' Really, my nature is like that of a wild man. Steppes, 
forests, air, river, sky, are the region where I grow 
young and strong. Without space I feel like a bird in 
a cage." She found herself in a congenial society of 
political exiles, and would have been happy but for 
her grief over the war. 

To Miss Dudley. August 2, 1916. 

**We must realize how dark the common brain still 
is. It needs thunder blows to be awakened and begin 
to think. Less than forty years ago, all the East, 
China, Russia, etc., were looked upon as dead, crys- 
tallized in their ancestors' prejudices. Now you see 
mighty China acquiring such ideas as are found in the 
van of European civilization ; and that after five 
thousand years of slumber. During the last thirty 
years China has received heavy blows on her shoulders, 
back and head, and very hastily she understood that 
she can no longer exist if she does not prevent the new- 
coming blows. China began to think, to analyze, to 
compare, to find out issues, only after hard and costly 
experience. 

*'Now we never doubt the capacities of mind and the 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 299 

progressive efficiency of the ocean of people that only 
yesterday were asleep. All the blows, however heavy 
and tyrannical, are so many lessons for the lazy brain 
of the world's population as a whole." 

To Miss Blackwell. October 1-13, 1916. 

"I have read your article about me. It was too 
much. I feel myself a good soul, nothing more." 

To Ernest Poole. October 2, November 2, 1916. 

" My very dear friend Ernest Poole ! It was such a 
joyful surprise to me, your dear letter, with your and 
your little son's portraits ! 

"I judge that there has been a great change for the 
better in your country since I saw it eleven years ago. 
All right ideas and social reforms were in their begin- 
ning ; they belonged to very few groups. But now they 
are so widespread that they influence even other coun- 
tries. For instance, in 1905 there was not one paper 
like the ' New York Call ',^ which I get now. I am 
sure that to-day many cities have such papers. 

"The large intervention of women in the prominent 
questions of State life is stimulating the progress of 
moral and physical culture in your country, as it has 
elsewhere. But what is more essential is the efforts 
of your intelligent people to establish connections with 
the people all over the world. The old world needs 
new impulses, and must be reminded of many questions 
already accepted by advanced minds, but not yet put 
in practice. All the visits made by delegates of the 
various International Congresses are of great value, 
and you must not weary of repeating them." 
1 The Socialist daily iu New York. 



300 LITTLE 'GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION' 

To Lewis Herreshoff. July 24, 1916. 

" I do not think there is any nationality quite innocent 
in the horrors we are witnessing. Yet I regard the 
conduct of the Germans as absurd, even unpardonable. 
From my childhood I disliked the disdain and roughness 
which characterized their behavior towards our Russian 
people, whom they regard as an inferior race. Our 
rich proprietors often engaged German agronomes as 
managers of their estates, and our peasants hated those 
managers for their systematic persecutions and rough- 
ness. The punishments were terrible; no mercy, no 
indulgence; very hard labors. I recognize that the 
Germans are skilful in every sort of manufacture, that 
they have energy and perseverance." 

[In another letter she says : " When we were children 
my parents employed a German girl to teach us the 
language. I remember her rough voice and cold 
manners. Of course there are good souls among the 
Germans, too. But Russia has rather suffered from 
the German civilization."] 

"The English and Americans are proud too, con- 
scious of the dignity of their race; but, to my great 
joy, they have always recognized the good sides of our 
people. I have read many books by intelligent travelers 
in Russia, and I was always pleased with the authors' 
impartiality. Now too, when reading the opinions of 
the English papers on the bravery and honesty of the 
Russian soldiers, I am sure that they mean what they 
say, for they expressed the same opinions when witness- 
ing our war with the Turks in 1877. Our young men 
fought like very lions. 

"I do not desire the destruction of the German people, 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 301 

not at all ; but I wish with all my heart to see them, 
after this criminal war, humanized and respectful 
towards every other nation, white or black or yellow. 

"The intelligence of our mind, our soul, is much more 
important than our skill in manufacturing and our 
outward culture; this last can be acquired with time 
and endeavor, but the religious tendencies are a dona- 
tion of rare and happy chance. We have to develop 
them, and not to be ashamed of it. We shall always 
feel our God in our breast — a God of love and 
righteousness. That will give us strength to fight and 
to win the battle. 

"I am not in the least a chauvinist. I respect the 
rights of every nationality. I desire full liberty for 
every people. Yet I have a large family of my com- 
patriots that has its rights too, its own history and 
modes of life, its own philosophy and faith; and as 
long as my people wish to develop their capacities as 
they think best, they must be left alone and have time 
to use their innate energy and genius ; on condition, 
of course, that they shall not meddle with the affairs 
of others. When ripe enough, it will make them able 
to live a common life with their neighbors, with all 
the world. Perhaps the time is not so remote as we 
might think." 

To Miss Dudley. November 5, 1916. 

*'I am like a salted herring in a big but immovable 
hogshead, conserved nobody knows why, and waiting, 
waiting, without end. My straining and my activity 
are limited now so narrowly that I see myself like a sea 
urchin in its shell, only thinking and endeavoring to 
understand the meaning of what mankind as a whole is 



S02 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

doing. I turn and re-turn the facts, the sayings and 
writings of different minds, of different people in 
different countries. As far as I know, it seems to me 
that we can agree with Mrs. Catt's speech, 'The 
Crisis.' This brave woman, of a bright and large 
mind, pleased me years ago, when, traveling over every 
country of the world, she described the situation of the 
suffrage amid the women of the various nations. She 
is born a leader. 

"Now, I wonder, too, at the masterly way in which 
England does, with what genius she holds together the 
reins in her hands, wisely overlooking the affairs of 
the world. I wish only she may be as sincere and noble 
as she is wise and strong. But it would be a great 
mistake on her part to settle affairs selfishly and with 
partiality, for in that case nothing would be prevented. 
Yet a long, or, better, a continual peace is necessary ; 
the desolation is too profound to be cured in a short 
time. The countries have lost all their best young 
forces, and we must wait till the young generations 
grow to be of use. We have thousands and thousands 
of orphans around us, and if we do not apply all our 
efforts and means to bring them up and teach them, we 
have no future. 

"The child question is the most serious and con- 
tinually pressing question of the age. I have a lot 
around me, the poorest. We are good friends, and the 
little I do is already a relief in their dull and needy life. 
Many of them visit the school, and need books and 
several pieces of clothes. I do my best to suffice, but 
they are so many ! It is awful to see how the world 
is foolish. They are writing in every paper about food 
and fuel, and they forget that if the race dies out, there 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 303 

will be nobody to eat and to provide. For shame ! I 
shall cry this question out in every letter to my many 
correspondents and urge them to do all they can to 
forward it." 

To Miss Blackwell. December 1-14, 1916. 

"If I worked as assiduously as you do, nothing would 
be left of me. Even here in my room, surrounded by 
comfort, I feel tired after I have been visited by a dozen 
persons, who want to hear or to be heard. Perhaps 
it is due to my excited feelings, that can't be quiet in 
the face of any need, or of the errors into which even 
goodhearted people often fall. From my youth I 
prayed the Creator to render my nature more cool and 
more quiet, but I succeed poorly, and it does not take 
much to inflame my heart, my passions — when the 
question does not concern myself. For myself I have 
worked out a philosophy that doesn't allow any senti- 
mentalism, and holds me and my disposition in a good 
state of order and peace. I would not wish to dis- 
appear directly, without seeing the issue of the present 
world tragedy, yet, if the end came, I should not be 
afraid. 

"To you alone I confess one thought that is of in- 
terest to me. Nearly every grand event in the life of 
my own country, also the solution of the moral and 
ethical questions of humanity, have been foreseen 
by me. In pursuing in my mind the present course of 
history (I have done it for more than half a century), 
in studying past history, I have acquired the power of 
forecast, and long before events take place or questions 
come to the front, I have had them in mind, and my 
imagination has worked out the ways and methods to 



304 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

follow. For instance, the war with Germany was not 
in the least a surprise to me. Five years before it 
happened, I had already plans made how to secure the 
integrity of our country, how to stop the invasion. My 
'preparedness' was not an offensive one, but genuinely 
a defensive one. Moreover, all the institutions for the 
people's welfare have long ago been a reality in my 
imagination, and now I see that, nolens volens, some 
of them are to be realized in fact. The question of 
pedagogy was long ago discussed in my mind, eugenics, 
the perfection of the race. I could cite more examples; 
and it convinces me that the terrible war will have its 
positive sides, and that, notwithstanding the universal 
losses and disasters, the mind of all mankind will 
grow up, and many things and questions not under- 
stood till now will become clear, and will take a solid 
place in the minds that have so long been wandering 
in the dark." 

To Arthur Bullard. November 30-Deeember 13, 1916. 

"The rigor of misery is spreading over all Europe, 
but Russia suffers the most, owing to her special condi- 
tions, internal and external, being a territory quite 
apart, surrounded on every side with enemies of all 
nationalities and creeds. Nobody is in fault except 
ourselves. But don't forget that the history of our 
people has been more cruel than that of other European 
countries. Very cruel it was, and we feel the conse- 
quences still. We shall feel them for a long time yet, if 
we do not change our indolence for a more active 
character. It is wonderful how much patience we have. 
We are not so devoid of reason as not to understand 
our position, our surroundings, the conditions that 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 305 

dominate us. We contemplate all this sighing and 
wondering, asking why it is. And we remain as pacific 
as if nothing changed. 

"Sometimes the horror of the present is so awful 
that I need all my will not to sink into despair. You 
have witnessed the horrors of war, but perhaps you did 
not see the horrors of the countries lying behind the 
front. No soul is strong enough to bear the picture of 
the world's sufferings in all their details. The imagina- 
tion halts, having no strength to continue the survey. 
Unless one is willing to go mad, one must not stand and 
inspect the facts. It is better to be occupied by some 
work which demands our attention. 

"The best means to be diverted from the heart- 
rending spectacle is to have to do with children. These 
little creatures don't give us time or rest enough to be 
absorbed by the idea of the universal mischief. When 
they come six or ten into my room, we are full of 
activity, and all my attention is fixed on their welfare. 
Books, paper, pencils, scissors, chiffons, needle, thread 
and many other things are necessary to keep them busy 
and happy. Some milk and white bread are enough to 
satisfy their appetite. This little family is growing from 
week to week, for the orphans are so glad to have some- 
body whom they can call ' grandmother ' and be sure to 
find a home on her bosom ! " 

To Miss Starr. January 26-February 8, 1917. 

*'I do not know who sends me the Public,^ but, 
reading this venerable paper, I always feel gratified at 
having the advantage of possessing it." 

^ A single-tax paper, published in New York. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

To Miss Dudley. January 28-February 10, 1917. 

"I shall never forget the moment you took leave of 
me. I do not think you have changed much since then, 
but sometimes I wonder if you would recognize me. 
My hair is not only white as snow, but very thin, my 
teeth are gone, my walking slow, with a stick in my 
right hand when out of doors. Perhaps the eyes and the 
voice are the same, and I laugh often enough, which 
is a surprise to me. It is the result of my faith that the 
great mischief of humanity will bring new ideas into 
the heads of the masses, and will make the heads more 
clear, the minds more strong. A new era is coming, I 
feel it with all my soul. Even if I die before the end 
of the war I shall die at peace, even for my country.'* 

To Mr. Herreshoff. February 4-17, 1917. 

"Your sister is seriously ill! Your best friend and 
companion ! I wonder that people living in good 
conditions, surrounded by their family and some com- 
forts, can be ill, being not old enough for that. The 
loss of good people is the greatest misfortune to which 
we are subjected. When I hear that this or that old 
friend of mine has left us for another world, I feel 
lonely, for I know that by and by these brave old 
comrades will pass away one after another. 

" Depressed ! it is an awful state of mind, and I wish 
I could send you, who have spent your life without 
constant misfortune, a part of my resignation. Un- 
certainty is my constant condition. In such a position 
one ought to be ready to meet bravely the worst that 
can happen. Therefore I believe with the little nephew 
of your friend Miss Drury, who said to his nurse, ' Why 
do people look so stern when they say their prayers ? ' 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 307 

All our sufferings are very small in comparison with the 
sea of sorrow that deluges the world with tears and 
wounds. Yet I hope that the moral courage of your 
country, for instance, and other efforts will bring about 
better results for the world, and teach a lesson for a long 
time to the wicked and to the best. The voice of the 
United States will be heard, if only that voice shall be 
on the side of right and impartiality. We can hear 
already the wishes all over the world that are asking 
for equality of interest and rights. In our misfortunes 
of to-day we can hope to see better times, with the help 
of rightminded people; and therefore we must agree 
with the child who remarked that we are wrong not to 
pray to God with serene faces, with love and hope in 
our eyes. I hope you will support the burden of life 
with a strong belief that your dear sister will never 
quit you. Two souls so closely bound together as 
yours were for so long a time can never be separated." 

To Miss Juha C. Drury. February 24, 1917. 

"My family is growing from day to day. We have 
orphans in such a quantity in every place and nook 
that we must be ready to see the whole country covered 
only with widows and children. What is absurd is 
that the rich people do very little to mitigate the wants 
and the misfortunes of the young people who are our 
only hope for a better future. 

"Mankind is so short-sighted that it does not pay 
attention to what is the most precious thing the world 
over, children and youth. 

"Animals, plants, bijouterie, furniture, all material 
things are of great value to them, and the best flower on 
earth, the best creature of the Creator, is only a burden. 



808 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

an undesired element that hinders them and disturbs 
their good humor. 

"They forget that all our happiness depends on the 
welfare and good education of the country children, 
that must give us a strong, clever, and honest popula- 
tion. 

"This furious war, as I hope, will teach the majority 
of mankind to understand its own interest, and to 
improve life throughout." 

Writing in the Neva after the revolution, she said : 

"There pulsed so much life in my heart that I could 
not imagine the end of my activities. Neither the long 
terms passed in jail nor my exile in Yakutsk had dimmed 
my spirit. 'I shall live through all this,' said an inner 
voice to me ; ' I shall live through everything, and live 
to see the bright days of freedom.' 

"In Irkutsk when I was very ill, I observed how care- 
fully the physicians concealed from me the danger of 
my malady. It seemed so strange to me that people 
could think of my fatal end, when my soul was full of 
complete faith that time was bringing me nearer daily 
to a different kind of end, the triumph of the revolution ! 

"The longer the war continued, the more horrible its 
consequences grew, the more clearly the rascality of 
the government manifested itself, the more inevitable 
appeared the rise of democracy all over the world, the 
nearer advanced also our revolution. 

"I waited for the sounds of the bell announcing 
freedom, and wondered why that sound delayed. 
When in November, 1916, explosions of indignation 
followed one another, I had already one foot in the 
Siberian sleigh, only feeling sorry that the snow road 
was beginning to thaw. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 309 

"March 4-17 a telegram reached me in Minussinsk 
announcing freedom. The same day I was on my 
way to Atchinsk, the nearest railroad station. From 
Atchinsk on began my uninterrupted communion with 
soldiers, peasants, workmen, railroad employes, stu- 
dents, and multitudes of beloved women, who to-day 
are all bearing the burdens of the normal and now also 
of the abnormal life of a great State." 



CHAPTER XVII 

One of the first acts of the Provisional Government 
was to declare an amnesty to all the political prisoners 
and exiles. There were said to be one hundred thou- 
sand in Siberia alone. All who could do so started at 
once for Russia. 

The government sent Madame Breshkovsky a 
special invitation to return. The long homeward 
journey was one continuous ovation. The soldiers 
joined with the populace to carry her in triumph. 
When she reached Moscow, she was placed in the Czar's 
state coach, and taken amid a military escort to the 
hall where the Moscow Douma was sitting. There 
she was given an official welcome, with greetings and 
orations. 

"Citizens," she said, "one thought is in my mind. 
Joy gives place to care. At every station and cross 
roads there is only one demand. It is the groan of 
the people for literature, books, teachers." 

She went on to make an earnest plea for universal 
education. She had told her American friends that, 
instead of conscripting all the young men to serve a 
term in the army, as under the old regime, she would 
like to have every man and woman in Russia who 
could read and write conscripted to serve for a few 
years as a school teacher. In this way Russia's great 
illiteracy could all be wiped out in a very short time. 

310 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 311 

At Petrograd the whole city turned out to meet 
her. A vast crowd waving red flags and singing the 
Marseillaise extended down the west end of Nevsky 
Prospekt as far as the Nicolaievsk railway station. 
"When the Associated Press correspondent arrived, 
he found the crowd trying to storm the station, to 
which none were admitted but veteran revolutionists 
and a deputation from the Ministry of Justice, headed 
by A. F. Kerensky, together with delegations of wel- 
come from the Petrograd, Moscow and Dorpat Uni- 
versities and high schools. A volunteer guard of 
soldiers and students was trying to hold back the 
crowd. 

At Kerensky's suggestion, the welcome to Madame 
Breshkovsky took place in the gorgeous suite in the 
railway station called the Imperial Reception Rooms, 
which under the old regime were used only for the 
reception of royal personages. All the survivors of 
the "Old Guard" among the revolutionists were there. 
Around the large drawing room were scores of baskets 
and wreaths of flowers, the scarlet tulip predominat- 
ing, with such inscriptions as "To Our Dear Grand- 
mother", "To Russia's Martyr Heroine." 

When the train arrived the crowd again attempted 
to storm the station, crying, "Let us see Grand- 
mother!" The guards quieted them, explaining the 
danger of a crush, and assuring them that all would 
be allowed to take part in the welcome. 

"I do not think that anywhere in the world there 
ever was a bride who received so many flowers," 
said the old heroine, smiling and pointing to her car 
in the train, filled with flowers given her on her way 
from Siberia. She had been met by enthusiastic 



S12 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

crowds at every station on her long journey ; she had 
seen all Russia, all her "grandchildren", workingmen, 
soldiers, peasants, and citizens of all ranks, greeting 
her as the symbol of the long struggle for freedom. 

In her special car were several men, some of whom 
had gone to meet her in Moscow. Among them was 
the Secretary of Justice, Kerensky. 

Secretary Kerensky handed "Grandmother" a bou- 
quet of red roses, and they kissed three times. She 
addressed him with the familiar " thou ", and described 
with enthusiasm her visit to Moscow. 

Madame Breshkovsky appeared at the door, leaning 
on Kerensky's arm. Taking off his hat, the Secretary 
of Justice addressed the crowd : " Comrades, the 
Grandmother of the Russian Revolution has returned 
at last to a free country. She has been in dungeons, 
in the penal settlements of the Lena, has been tortured 
endlessly, yet here we have her with us, brave and 
happy. Let us shout 'Hurrah' for our dear Grand- 
mother !" 

The platform fairly shook with the thunder of ac- 
clamation that followed, and, to the accompaniment 
of rousing ovations, the beloved Grandmother, led 
by Kerensky, walked to the reception rooms, where 
numerous deputations were awaiting her. I 

A party of nurses came first, handing her flowers 
and waving a red flag with the inscription: "Long 
live the Grandmother of the Russian Revolution!" 
The spokeswoman said : 

"We nurses are but an infinitesimal group of all 
those sisters who, in this happy day for Russia, send 
you their humble and worshipful greetings." 

She was surrounded on all sides; women pushed 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 313 

one another to kiss her hands, men doffed their hats 
and shouted "Hurrah!" as Madame Breshkovsky, 
accompanied by Kerensky, proceeded to the waiting 
automobile to be taken to the Congress of Workers' 
Delegates. A sitting of the Council of Soldiers' 
Deputies was in progress. When the news came that 
"Grandmother" had arrived, every one present rose 
and applauded. The ovation lasted a long time. 

The first to speak was Kerensky. He said: "I 
am happy and proud to greet you. Grandmother, in 
the name of Russian democracy and the Provisional 
Government. I am happy to greet you, whom the 
old government had persecuted and whom we now 
meet with such honor." 

"In the name of the Executive Committee of the 
Council of Soldiers' and Workers' Delegates," said 
N. S. Tcheidze, " I greet the woman who inspired the 
Russian Revolution. Let us hope that, with the same 
faith in the righteousness of the cause, she will continue 
to inspire us in our work of further conquests on the 
road of freeing Russia. Again I greet you humbly 
and salute you ! " 

One after another, representatives of various groups 
rose to greet the beloved Grandmother. Deeply 
moved, Madame Breshkovsky replied to these greet- 
ings. Every one rose. She said : 

"I have come over a long road. I am old and can- 
not remember everything. As I came out on the 
platform I saw the people ; all around I saw working- 
men. I came into this temple of freedom, and see 
military organizations, workmen, Cossacks, sailors. 
Thus I have to-day had the happiness of seeing repre- 
sentatives of all organized Russia, Is not this com- 



314 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

plete happiness ! It proves that we can work in 
unison, free and happy, wi];hout discord, as one man. 

" Dear citizens ! I have been fifty years in the ranks 
of the Russian Revolution, and without boast can say 
that there was never one more true to duty and disci- 
pHne, or who appreciated more the meaning of obHga- 
tions. Never has there been any wrangKng or dis- 
putes in my party on my account. I have always 
respected the opinions of my comrades and the rulings 
of the party to such an extent that I have invariably 
stood for a friendly settlement of the most disputable 
questions. 

"Do not I see that you are all children of the same 
cause ? The soldier — isn't he the same as the work- 
ingman ? You are all children of our one great mother, 
Russia, and why should you suddenly begin to quarrel 
with one another ? " 

A soldier approached close to the platform where 
"Grandmother" was speaking. She picked out a rose 
from her bouquet and handed it to her "grandson." 
The soldier kissed her hand tenderly. Madame 
Breshkovsky gently stroked the soldier's hair, and 
continued amidst thunderous applause: 

"If we all aspire towards freedom and equality, 
what differences can there be between us? Wliat is 
there to disagree about ? Why put sticks in the spokes 
of one another's wheels ? If we seek to overcome such 
an enemy, such a bitter foe of Russia as Wilhelm, can 
we not overcome our little differences? It would 
say very little for our wisdom if we could not combat 
those. 

"All these greetings, on all sides, addressed to one 
and the same person — whom you call your Grand- 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 315 

mother — prove that you are unanimous. Every one 
says, 'We will die for freedom.' In this I see soli- 
darity. Everyone understands that if we do not over- 
come the foe, it will bring our country to grief; he, 
our bloody foe, will come and will dictate to us his 
laws. I am sure no one wants that. We do not de- 
sire any annexations, we have no wish to ruin others, 
but to allow yourselves to be trampled upon, to lose 
your self-respect, that would be unworthy of great 
Russia ! 

"My children, nothing is obtained gratis. No 
complete freedom can be obtained without hard 
work. You know perhaps better than I that nothing 
accomplishes itself — brain and spirit are necessary. 
For three years Russia has been suffering, as no one 
has suffered, and perhaps more suffering will have to 
be borne before we reach the goal. Then let us unite, 
and let us strive that no petty differences shall mar the 
way to our chief aim — the freedom and happiness of 
the whole nation." 

Madame Breshkovsky ended amidst enthusiastic 
and continuous applause. 

The chair into which she sank was lifted by Ke- 
rensky, Tcheidze, Secretary of Labor, Skobelev, and 
others, who placed it carefully on their shoulders, and 
accompanied by unprecedented acclamations carried 
it to the Ekaterininsk hall, where they were met with 
further applause and ovations. Flowers were carried 
in front of the chair. A ring was formed around to clear 
the passage, and the beloved Grandmother was carried 
to the entrance. 

Here a large gathering of representatives of the 
army, from the trenches and reserves, awaited her. 



S16 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

"In the name of the old-Russian garrison of 25,000 
men, allow me, Grandmother, to greet you!" 

"Grandmother" patted the soldier gently and gave 
him a rose. "Go back," she said, "and tell them that 
Grandmother has sent them a rose and her greetings." 

A Red Cross nurse approached. "In the name of 
the nurses on the northern front, allow me to kiss 
you," "Grandmother" kissed her and gave her a 
rose also. 

"I have been wounded four times," said an officer 
near by. "My brother lost his life for freedom. 
My father has suffered. It was with difficulty that I 
obtained permission to don a uniform to stand in the 
ranks of the army. Allow me to greet you in the 
name of the invalided." 

"Thank you, dear, thank you." 

A. A. Nazarov, Cossack, member of the Douma, 
greeted her in the name of the members of the Douma : 

"Long live the great Russian Grandmother! In 
your youth you spread the seed of freedom, and in 
your old age you have made Russia happy. Long live 
the bearers of peace;, long live the Russian woman!" 

An automobile carried away "Grandmother" and 
Kerensky. 

The Guards' Economic Society was holding a meet- 
ing in the theatre of Musical Drama and invited 
her to honor them with her presence. . Two other 
heroes of the Russian Revolution were present — Vera 
Figner and Herman Lopatin, both of whom had 
spent a quarter of a century in the Schlusselburg 
fortress. It is hard to describe the reception accorded 
"Grandmother" and the other veterans of the revo- 
lution. The audience hung on every word she said, 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 317 

on every gesture, and responded to everything with 
enthusiasm. 

When she talked about the unity of the people, 
the power that is only obtained by unity, when she 
pointed to the other veterans of the old guard of the 
Russian Revolution, Vera Figner and Herman Lopatin, 
and told how they had replaced one another at the 
revolutionary front in the olden days, and emphasized 
that they were strong only because there had been 
no division among them; when she called upon all 
her friends and "children" to unite mind and heart 
in a single purpose, in the name of freedom — the 
crowd listened enraptured, and after a moment of 
dead silence, burst into applause. 

Lopatin said: "There is no price too dear for that 
freedom which we now have. And I am happy that 
in the decline of my years before the end — I am grow- 
ing deaf and blind — I am able to see the triumph 
of a freed Russia." Vera Figner was indisposed and 
tired, and did not speak. 

The audience, as one man, stood up and applauded 
vociferously the old fighters for Russia's freedom. 
When the beloved Grandmother of the Revolution 
was carried from the hall to her automobile, to the 
strains of the Marseillaise played by the soldiers of 
the Volhj^n regiment, hundreds of eyes followed 
this simple and quiet old woman, in whose face could 
be read the chronicle of a great struggle and the joy 
of the great triumph. 



318 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

Cablegram. Petrograd, April 13, 1917. 

To Alice Stone Blackwell, the Woman's Journal, 
Boston, U. S. A. 

"Greetings from free Russia to the people of the 
U. S. A. ! Am enjoying happiness, with all the city, 
and Russia and Siberia. 

"Breshkovsky." 

A like cablegram came to Miss Wald. 

To Miss Dudley. April 14-27, 1917. On a picture 

card. 

"I have sent two telegrams to American friends, 
but no letter until now. From the 4th of our March 
till to-day, I have never been alone. All the way 
through Siberia, the Urals and Russia, the people 
came by thousands and wanted some words from 
me; often even at night I spoke from my railroad 
car, which is now my dwelling ; for I go from one place 
to another to see and speak and. hear. 

"I dare say with certainty that our people is a re- 
sponsible and right-feeling one. The war will continue 
till our friends will discontinue it without annexations. 

"I was in Minussinsk when it happened. This 
(picture) is the army of our people the first day of the 
revolution in Moscow. We hope it will continue as 
well as it has begun. I am quite well. Much to do, 
very much : but it is my life." 

To Miss Blackwell. Moscow. April 26-May 9, 1917. 

"I am healthy, and strong, and happy — yes, 
happy, though always thinking about the future. 
How v/ill the war end, and how soon ? Will our peo- 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION SlD 

pie be always as reasonable as they are now? I am 
sure they will : but certain foolish individuals hope to 
influence the masses badly. Yet there are more good 
events, and a quantity of good people. 

"I had lived so long with my hope of seeing Russia 
free that I was not a bit astonished to see it realized, 
and the confidence of my fellow citizens makes me sure 
of a happy future, after the war. The losses are enor- 
mous, and every one is busy with some work to pro- 
vide the army with food and all sorts of munitions." 

We have had other glimpses of her through the press. 
At a great meeting in Moscow called by the League 
to Promote Equal Rights for Women, she said : 

"You have received me as a heroine. As a matter 
of fact, you have never heard of anything heroic done 
by me, unless it be that all my life I have held my post 
like a faithful soldier and have done my work quietly. 
Even so, I could not do it all the time. Thirty-two 
years of prison and of Siberia kept me practically 
idle ; only eleven years of ' underground ' life gave me 
the opportunity to engage in the active work as dic- 
tated by my heart. And that was not heroic work; 
it was ordinary, everyday work, yet the kind of work 
the people need. 

"There is no need of heroic deeds. Unfortunately, 
many inactive persons imagine that it is necessary to 
perform something wonderful, heroic — that one is 
either to sit in passive idleness, or else to ascend to 
the summit of a lofty mountain and there perform an 
act of such extraordinary heroism as shall reverberate 
throughout the world. As a result these people sit 
idly at home and do nothing. 

"To be sure, there are times and emergencies de- 



S20 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

manding and producing great talents, prodigious powers 
of mind and action, heroic deeds. But I wish you to 
bear in mind that there is a great deal of work to be 
done in ordinary times — ordinary, not heroic work, 
that has to be done, that is of great importance and 
is much needed. 

"My greatest treasure is my infinite love for the 
people. Many of those who worked and suffered with 
me shared that treasure. Only I have been more 
fortunate in that I happened to have a stronger con- 
stitution and survived, while the others succumbed. 
We all aimed to bring light and freedom to the people. 
Now it is the duty of those who survive to work harder 
for the realization of that aim. 

"It is my desire now to organize a great publishing 
house for the purpose of producing and circulating 
among the plain people the sort of literature they need 
— the books to be written in the plainest language, 
so that any one can understand. It is likewise neces- 
sary to organize a corps of young people to engage 
in disseminating this literature throughout the length 
and breadth of the country. Within a few days I shall 
begin to work on these lines. I may, perhaps, be 
granted the use of a railroad car — I have no home — 
and travel from one end of Russia to the other, to meet 
and speak to those who need our word and deed." 

To Miss Blackwell. May 3, 1917. My Railroad Car. 

"This is only the second card I write you, since 
liberty made me a free citizen of a free country. You 
can't imagine how much there is to do now. Day 
and night the best people are busy with thousands of 
affairs, great and small. I am making a tour over 



LITTLE GRANDINIOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 321 

our large country to see and to speak. The long years 
of sufferings have had their effect. Friendship is 
spread everywhere, and every one wants to have the 
old woman who loved so long and so heartily all who 
suffered and wished to be free. My voice does not 
suffice to express all I would say, and I have with me 
a young 'grandson' who continues the speeches I begin. 
Soldiers, peasants, workmen and all the youth is with 
us. Frenchmen and Englishmen wonder to see the 
solidarity of such a large country, with so many dif- 
ferent nationalities. Alice, I am happy, but not quiet 
till the war is finished and all the forces occupied with 
the interior affairs." 

To Miss Dudley. May 7-20, 1917. Petrograd. 

*'My travels will continue the whole summer, till 
we have the Reunion Legislative, when the voice of 
all our 170,000,000 people will be heard and the fun- 
damental laws settled. We are having some trouble 
with a few bad minds, or foolish minds, but it is im- 
possible to avoid some discomforts in such a large 
and new situation." 

Moscow, May 13, 1917. 

"To all my dear Friends : It goes better and better. 
The peasants are strong and well disposed, always 
ready to do their best. The army, too, for it is com- 
posed of peasants' boys. There are some people 
that have imbibed foreign ideas (from Germany), but 
they are few, and in a few days all the tempest they 
have awakened in the capital will disappear. Such a 
great revolution as we have here cannot be carried 
through without some troubles. 



322 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF, RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

"We women have all the rights we wanted, quite 
such as the men. In short, the program is broad 
enough to make the people happy for centuries of 
ages. Yet we must work as never before; and the 
work would not be so hard if there were more people 
of experience. 

"I have been expecting this time (of a great revolu- 
tion) for many years. It gave me strength and cour- 
age, and I was prepared in my mind for the things I 
am doing now. But all the rest were so astonished, 
it was such a big surprise to them, that they are learn- 
ing their task only now, when the events do not wait, 
and demand a resolute and strong conviction." 

She was elected a member of the National Peasants' 
Congress, receiving the largest vote among all the nine 
hundred delegates, with one exception. She was with 
Kerensky when he reviewed the Black Sea fleet, and 
she has been standing with him during the recent 
troubles. She is reported as saying that the best 
thing the Americans can do for the Russians at present 
is to help them to vanquish Germany. 

To Miss Blackwell. The Crimea. May 30-June 13, 

1917. 

*'The old girl is busy, and often very preoccupied 
with the state of affairs throughout the country. Not 
the country, no, but the front, which has been going 
mad with the sole idea of liberty. Young people 
without education and knowledge imagine that the 
war must be abandoned, since the people were not 
asked to begin it. Some ignorant and some bad 
individuals inspired and enforced these ideas among 
the recruits," and it took time and efforts before the 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 323 

soldiers were convinced that tliey ought to begin 
again to do their duty. It is much better now. 

"Thanks to Providence, our peasants, fathers and 
husbands, are reasonable enough to wait, and to main- 
tain order in their villages. But the young workers 
and young soldiers are too inexperienced and ignorant 
to be mindful and patient. They imagine that all 
the old wrongs can be undone in some days, and there- 
fore they demand new conditions of life that cannot 
be created in a few months, and with a war on our 
shoulders. 

"Happily, we have now a board of Ministers very 
noble in all senses. Most of them are Socialists, old 
acquaintances of mine, too. 

"After the war there will be a great deal of work 
to do, especially for the education of the whole people. 
I should be so happy to see this work begun and ad- 
vanced before I am ready to go away ! 

"To-day I got a letter from some women who pro- 
pose to form a regiment of women alone, to go to war 
and show how one must fight for the liberty and wel- 
fare of one's people. From another place I got the 
same proposition. If there are many women desirous 
to enlist, we will write to the Minister of War offering 
our services. 

"Do not laugh. At this time every expedient that 
will serve to attain a good end will be welcome. Our 
women have never feared dangers, and if our example 
will promote the affairs of the war, we shall be glad to 
die forsit. For Russia is bound hand and foot, resting 
as it is now. 

"When the land of the republic becomes the com- 
monwealth property of the whole people, it will make 



324 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

US rich, and able to attain many great advantages, 
not yet realized anywhere. 

"My beloved child, there are moments when I 
would be so happy to lay my head upon your lap!" 

She enclosed a photograph of herself surrounded by 
flowers, and said: "The young comrades cherish the 
grandmother, and wish to have her surrounded with 
flowers and red ribbons. The old woman is always 
ready to do the will of her little children. Sometimes 
she feels like a fool, but never mind. 

"I am to install in many places printing presses to 
multiply pamphlets and newspapers for the peasants, 
soldiers and workmen. I collect the money and 
choose the most convenient places." 

The Last Letter.^ 
June 10-23, 1917. The Crimea. 

"My ever-dear and beloved friends, Alice S. Black- 
well, Helena Dudley, Jane Addams, Ellen Starr, Arthur 
BuUard, friend Poole and so many others, faithful 
and brave ! 

" A new history of the world is beginning, and here 
we are at the first steps of a march always difficult, 
but promising the most desirable results. 

"We are directing our steps toward Socialism, and 
the task is to make them secure, firm and real. We 
Socialists are working energetically for this, and the 
sympathy that we meet with from the people gives us 
courage and assurance. 

"Certain disorders and some partial revolts, of 
which the newspapers speak, have taken place here 
and there, it is true. We are doing our utmost to 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 325 

combat the false ideas spread by stupid or malevolent 
persons, scoundrels who have nothing to lose, without 
conscience or honor, who have come from every part 
of the world. But the truth is that their propaganda 
affects only young, weak and ignorant minds. And 
as our army is made up mostly of such elements, it is 
the army that is the breeding place of all the disturb- 
ances which we have to overcome. As for the rest of 
the population — the men and women of the villages 
and of the faubourgs, — they constitute a peaceful 
and patriotic element, desirous to see the war brought 
to an end advantageous to Hussia (without losses and 
without humiliations). 

"But you can well conceive, my friends, that people 
most of whom (the women included) do not know how 
to read or write, cannot offer a foundation firm and 
durable enough, an audience intelligent enough to 
understand and remember everything that they hear 
from time to time from their Socialist friends, who, 
with all their efforts, cannot suffice to be everywhere 
and as often as would be needful. 

"Vast distances, provinces situated at the farthest 
limits of this immense country, always remain plunged 
in darkness, and cannot take in, cannot form a correct 
idea of what is going on in the world. 

"It is necessary to illuminate, to enlighten the 
minds of a nation that is ready to grasp knowledge; 
a nation that has been forcibly deprived of all teach- 
ing. For there are only a few thousand fortunate 
persons who were able to get an education in the small 
number of schools that did not in any way meet the 
needs of a population of 170,000,000. 

"Yes, our past history has been a fatal one for Russia 



326 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

in every respect. The finances utterly ruined, all 
the country's present wealth and resources devastated, 
the war which is absorbing the rest, increasing our 
debts at the rate of 40,000,000 rubles a day. More- 
over, at present we lack everything necessary, such as 
machines, tools, paper, etc. We have everything to 
repair, not only to meet the present situation, but with 
a view to the future of our nation, which is capable of 
taking an active part in the upbuilding of the civil- 
ization of the world. 

" The new history must make all the nations members 
of one family. The better these members are pre- 
pared for a reasonable and brotherly life, the better 
they understand the reciprocity of their mutual in- 
terests, the better they know each others' customs, 
history and civilization, the surer and deeper will be 
their friendship, the stronger will be the ties that 
unite them. 

"The international interdependence of reciprocal 
interests (present and future) is a subject that must 
be thoroughly gone into in all its complexity; but an 
ignorant nation will have difficulty in understanding 
it unless it is introduced to it by some preliminary 
explanations and has some concrete ideas about it. 
We must teach them the causes of the present war, 
and set before them the consequences that may fol- 
low if the Russians do not behave properly towards 
their Allies. 

"My friends and I are doing our utmost to furnish 
the country with the necessary literature, to organize 
groups of intelligent women and men ready to go among 
the masses to enlighten and instruct them — men, 
women, youths, even old people. In the hospitals. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 327 

in the barracks, wherever there is anybody to talk to, 
they are explaining, giving lessons, readings, etc. 

"But we are too few to meet this vast need for in- 
struction. They snatch our pamphlets from us, they 
ask for more and still more of them ; from every corner, 
near and far, they are begging us to send them teachers, 
readers. But we cannot respond to more than a 
tenth part of these demands. Time presses, questions 
are piling up, the war is ruining the whole world; we 
are nearer the brink of ruin than the rest. 

"The bourgeoisie think only of themselves ; they 
are not helping us. We need many good newspapers, 
capable of reaching the intelligence of all our igno- 
rant people, and showing them the truth about the 
present situation, the misfortune that awaits us if we 
lose the esteem and confidence of our friends, the Allies. 
For this we must have millions of copies of newspapers. 
And in order to get them we need a printing office 
with rotary presses, capable of running off a consider- 
able number of copies every day. We have none such 
in Russia, except those in the hands of the capitalists, 
who will not part with them. We are receiving no 
more since the breaking out of the war, since it has 
become impracticable to import things. 

"In our country rotary presses are not manufac- 
tured. So we poor Socialists remain with empty hands, 
hmited to working with small machines, which give 
us miserable thousands of copies, instead of the mil- 
lions that are indispensable. That is why I address 
myself to you, my friends. Get up a subscription to 
raise a sum of money which will serve first to buy a 
rotary printing press, and paper enough to furnish 
reading matter for several months, until the meeting 



328 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OP RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

of the General Assembly; the second part of the 
money as the capital necessary to begin the great affair 
of publishing the paper. 

"Make the American public understand that this 
is not only a question of the salvation of the Russian 
people, but a question which concerns international 
relations and interests. The whole world would be a 
gainer by having as a member a country with ideas 
nobly and wisely directed toward the common good. 
This is in no sense a Utopia, for, as I have told you all 
along in our correspondence, 'The Russians are a 
capable people, and of a good disposition. All they 
need is civilization and education.' 

"To be sure, after some years, and by great efforts, 
we should be able to accomplish it by our own strength, 
for in spite of the troubles and disorders that are mani- 
festing themselves at present, common sense and good 
faith will get the upper hand. But it would be a great 
pity not to do the utmost possible to hasten the glad 
time of an order which would permit working with full 
power and speedy success, instead of letting the time 
drag along, at the risk of delaying the general well-being. 

"Think of it, friends, and let me know your decision 
as soon as it is reached, whether favorable or unfavor- 
able. I wish very much that it may be favorable. 
I urge you to decide as soon as possible, too, because 
my health is not as strong as it used to be. I should 
like much to see with my own eyes the installation of 
the whole affair. My experience has been great, and 
I have never had at my side persons unworthy of 
confidence. Now that all activities are carried on 
openly, I have every opportunity to make a good 
choice while I am alive to do it. 



LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 329 

"So, in case you consent, I beg you to address the 
things (the machine, its equipment and the paper) 
as well as the money, to the address : 

" 'Russia, Moscow, Kusnezky Most 16., 
" 'For Catherine Breshkovsky.' " 

An Associated Press dispatch of September 21, 1917, 
speaks of her as lodged in the winter palace in Petro- 
grad, and as finding the surroundings too gorgeous for 
her simple tastes. She reported that she and her 
friends had 140 printing presses ^ busy turning out 
literature for the peasants and workmen, and for the 
soldiers at the front. 

Madame Breshkovsky was chosen a member of the 
Preliminary Parliament of Russia. When it assembled 
in Petrograd on October 20, 1917, Premier Kerensky, 
after his opening speech, called upon her to take 
the chair, as she was the senior member of the Parlia- 
ment. She received a great ovation as temporary 
chairman. 

As reported in the press despatches, she declared 
that the people ought to be masters of the soil they 
cultivate. A just solution of the agrarian question, 
she said, would enable the country to avoid dangerous 
collisions ; therefore, if the council of the republic 
seriously wished to assist the country, it should solve 
this problem in conformity with the exigencies of 
Russian history, and she urged the intellectual classes 
not to oppose such a solution. 

Madame Breshkovsky 's whole life has fulfilled the 
words that she once wrote to an American friend : 

"We ought to elevate the people's psychology by 
1 See Appendix. 



330 LITTLE GRANDMOTHER OF RUSSIAN REVOLUTION 

our own example, and give them the idea of a purer 
life by making them acquainted with better morals 
and higher ideals; to call out their best feelings and 
strongest principles. We ought to tell the truth, not 
fearing to displease our hearers ; and be always ready 
to confirm our words by our deeds." 



APPENDIX 

Dr. Gregory Gershuni (Page 107) 

Gershuni was Madame BresKkovsky's closest col- 
league in the work of the party. He was a Jew, and a 
man of extraordinary force of character. His escape 
from Siberia was remarkable. At the prison of Akatui, 
the prisoners used to put up their own provisions for 
the winter. These were then stored in the cellars of the 
Governor's house, which stood outside the walls. Ger- 
shuni's fellow exiles put him in the bottom of a large 
barrel, which had been furnished with breathing holes. 
They spread a piece of leather over him, filled the top 
of the barrel with pickled cabbage, and conveyed it to 
the Governor's lowest cellar, where they left it. Com- 
rades outside had dug a subterranean tunnel into the 
cellar, and Gershuni got out of the barrel and went 
away. 

To keep his escape from being found out too soon, 
the other exiles made a head out of cheese, and laid it 
on the pillow in his cell. When the jailer made the 
rounds in the evening to see that the prisoners were 
all there, several of them stood around Gershuni's bed, 
apparently holding an animated conversation with this 
head. 

Gershuni afterwards visited America. The great 

331 



332 APPENDIX 

reception given him on his arrival at the South Station 
by the Russians and Russian Jews of Boston was a 
wonderful sight. So was his funeral in Paris a few 
years later. He was as remarkable a character as 
Madame Breshkovsky herself. 

The first number of Free Russia was published as 
a monthly in August, 1890, as the organ of the Eng- 
lish Society of Friends of Russian Ereedom, with 
*'New York and London" in the date line. The No- 
vember number of the same year appeared as an 
"American Edition", with the announcement that 
the Russian American National League of New York 
had united with the Society of Friends of Russian 
Freedom of England, and had organized the Free 
Russia Publishing Association "for the purpose of 
publishing this magazine in America." Thencefor- 
ward there was a special American edition of Free 
Russia issued every month in New York. The edit- 
ing of it for American readers began with the number 
for July, 1891. This American edition ceased publica- 
tion with the number for June- July, 1894. 

American Friends of Russian Freedom (Page 124) 

The call sent out in May of 1891 setting forth the 
objects of the association, and inviting membership, 
was headed by Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, 
and signed by Julia Ward Howe, John G. Whittier, 
James Russell Lowell, George Kennan, WilHam Lloyd 
Garrison, Henry I. Bowditch, Alice Freeman Palmer, 
Charles G. Ames, Edward L. Pierce, Phillips Brooks, 
Frank B. Sanborn, Annie Fields, Albert G. Browne, 
Edward Everett Hale, Minot J. Savage, R. Heber 
Newton, C. H. Eaton, Raymond S. Perrin, Mary 



APPENDIX S33 

Putnam Jacobi, Titus Munson Coan, Marguerite 
Meriiigton, E. Winchester Donald, Lyman Abbott, 
Hamilton W, Mabie, E. Benjamin Andrews, Lillie 
B. Chace Wyman, Samuel L. Clemens, Joseph H. 
Twichell, F. D. Huntington, William C. Gannett, 
John W. Chadwick, John H. Vincent, W. H. Furness, 
W. N. McVickar, and Joseph T. Duryea. 

Poems on Madame Breshkovsky (Page 173) 

The following are three of the many poems that 
have been written to Catherine Breshkovsky : 

BRESHKOVSKAYA 

By Elsa Barker 
(From the New York Times) 

How narrow seems the round of ladies' lives 

And ladies' duties in their smiling world. 

The day this Titan woman, gray with years. 

Goes out across the void to prove her soul ! 

Brief are the pains of motherhood, that end 

In motherhood's long joy ; but she has borne 

The age-long travail of a cause that lies 

Still-born at last on History's cold lap. 

And yet she rests not ; yet she will not drink 

The cup of peace held to her parching lips 

By smug Dishonor's hand. Nay, forth she fares, 

Old and alone, on exile's rocky road — 

That well-worn road with snows incarnadined 

By blood drops from her feet long years agone. 

Mother of power, my soul goes out to you 
As a strong swimmer goes to meet the sea 



334 APPENDIX 

Upon whose vastness he is like a leaf. 
What are the ends and purposes of song. 
Save as a bugle at the lips of life 
To sound reveille to a drowsing world 
When some great deed is rising like the sun ? 

Where are those others whom your deed inspired 
To deeds and words that were themselves a deed ? 
Those who believed in death have gone with death 
To the gray crags of immortality ; 
Those who believed in life have gone with life 
To the red halls of spiritual death. 

And you ? But what is death or life to you ? 

Only a weapon in the hand of faith 

To cleave a way for beings yet unborn 

To a far freedom you will never share ! 

Freedom of body is an empty shell 

Wherein men crawl whose souls are held with gyves ; 

For Freedom is a spirit, and she dwells 

As often in a jail as on the hills. 

In all the world this day there is no soul 

Freer than you, Breshkovskaya, as you stand 

Facing the future in your narrow cell. 

For you are free of self and free of fear, 

Those twin-born shades that lie in wait for man 

When he steps out upon the wind-blown road 

That leads to human greatness and to pain. 

Take in your hand once more the pilgrim's staff — 
Your delicate hand misshapen from the nights 
In Kara's mines ; bind on your unbent back. 
That long has borne the burdens of the race. 



APPENDIX 335 

The exile's bundle, and upon your feet 
Strap the worn sandals of a tireless faith. 

You are too great for pity. After you 

We send not sobs, but songs ; and all our days 

We shall walk bravelier knowing where you are. 



TO CATHERINE BRESHKOVSKY 

in the forteess of peter and paul 

By Sophie Jewett 
(Reprinted by permission of Thomas Y. Crowell.) 

The liberal summer wind and sky and sea. 
For thy sake, narrow like a prison cell 
About the wistful hearts that love thee well 
And have no power to comfort nor set free. 

They dare not ask what these hours mean to thee : 
Delays and silences intolerable ? 

' The joy that seemed so near, that soared, and fell. 
Become a patient, tragic memory ? 

From prison, exile, age, thy gray eyes won 
Their gladness, Mother, as of youth and sun, 
And love ; and though thy hero heart, at length 

Tortured past thought, break for thy children's tears. 
Thy mortal weariness shall be their strength. 
Thy martyred hope their vision through far years. 



336 APPENDIX 

BABUSHKA 

By Katharine Lee Bates 

Thou whose sunny heart outglows 
Arctic snows ; 

Russia's hearth-fire, cherishing 
Courage almost perishing ; 
Torch that beacons oversea 
Till a world is at thy knee ; 
Babushka the Beloved, 
What Czar can exile thee ? 

Sweet, serene, unswerving soul. 
To thy goal 

Pressing on such mighty pinions 
Tyrants quake for their dominions. 
And devise yet heavier key, 
Deeper cell to prison thee. 
Babushka the Beloved, 
Thyself art Liberty ! 

Though thy martyr body, old. 
Chains may hold, 
Clearer still thy voice goes ringing 
Over steppe and mountain, bringing, 
Holy mother of the free. 
Millions more thy sons to be. 
Babushka the Beloved, 
What death can silence thee ? 



APPENDIX 337 

Dates of Letters (Page 277) 

Before her attempt at escape. Mme. Breshkovsky 
had written several letters to her friends, dating them 
in advance, and these were sent out to the post, day 
by day. 

Printing Presses (Page 329) 

These were probably the small presses that she had 
found so unsatisfactory. Her American friends had 
not been able to send a rotary press. 



INDEX 



Addams, Jane, 123, 158, 184, 185, 
209, 232, 269, 324 

Aim of life, 255, 270, 279 

Alcohol, suppression of, 285 

Alexander II, 33 

Alexandrovsk, 145 

Allies, desires victory of, 288 ; 
need of supporting the, 326, 
327 

America, visits, 110-131; com- 
ment on leaving, 130 ; dreams 
of, 11 ; gratitude to, 174, 
206, 211, 220, 256, 267 

American, Catherine Bresh- 
kovsky's, 99-100 

American Friends of Russian 
Freedom, first society of, 124 ; 
second and third, 125 

American magazines, romances 
in, 258 

Americans and Russians com- 
pared, 243-244 

American women, 157, 209, 250, 
256, 284 

Amnesty, 310 

AndreeflF, 276 

Angora River, 294 

Apple Mountains, 94 

Armenians, fate of, 118 

Arrest of Mme. Breshkovsky, 79, 
133 

Art, reflections on beauty in, 
137, 140, 141 ; Russian view 
of, 258 



Asia, Central, 193 
Assassination, political, 108, 109 
Atchinsk, 309 
Atlantic Monthly, 190 
Austria, 29 
Australia, 182 
Axelrod, 32 

Azeff, Madame Breshkovsky be- 
trayed by, 133 

Babrinski, Count, 48, 49 
"Babushka," by Katharine Lee 

Bates, 336 
Baikal, Lake, 89, 295 
Bakunin, Michael, 27, 28 
Bakuninites, 27, 32 
Balagansk, 287 
Balkans, war in the, 239 
Ballad of the Brave Man, 195 
Baratov, Duke, 13, 14 
Barguzin, 89-92 ; fl.ight from, 93 
Barker, Elsa, poem by, 333 
Barrows, Hon. Samuel J., 125, 
127, 128, 129, 134, 224; "A 
Sunny Life" (biography of), 
261 
Barrows, Mrs. Isabel C, 125, 
127, 128, 130, 134, 135, 142, 
143, 151, 164, 172, 185, 187, 
188, 190, 212, 223, 242, 260, 
265, 266, 271, 274, 275 ; letters 
to, 166, 170, 187, 192, 208, 214, 
224, 229, 234, 247, 261; "A 
Sunny Life," by, 261 



339 



340 



INDEX 



Bates, Governor John L., 119 
Bates, Katharine Lee, poem by, 

336 
Bey, CorneHa de, 269 
Biography, how to write, 196 
Biography of Lucy Stone urged, 

195, 230 
Black Hole, 82 
Black People, Soul of, 158 
Blackwell, Alice Stone, 124, 125 
128, 131, 144, 157, 161, 173 
188, 229, 237 ; letters to, 149 
152, 155, 161, 166, 168, 171 
178, 182, 183, 187, 195, 209 
214, 219, 221, 230, 241, 248 
255, 257, 258, 260, 262, 265 

275, 278, 280, 284, 285, 288 
290, 292, 294, 299, 303, 318 
(cablegram), 321, 322, 324 

Blackwell, Dr. Elizabeth, "Pio- 
neer Work for Women," 285 

Blackwell, Henry B., Ill 

Bloomfield, Meyer, 118 

Boarding school, teaches, 21 

Borash, Michael, 155 

Boston, 111, 120 

Boston Transcript, 120, 130 

Bouyan, Isle of, 280 

Breshkovskaya, by Elsa Barker, 
333 

Breshkovsky, Catherrue, activ- 
ities after the revolution, 318- 
329; activities as a Liberal, 
21-24 ; activities as a Revo- 
lutionist, 26-79, 104-132; ar- 
rest, first, 79 ; arrest, sec- 
ond, 132 ; attempted escape 
from Barguzin, 93, 94 ; at- 
tempted escape from Kirensk, 

276, 277; betrayed by Azeflf, 
133 ; birth of, 1 ; birth of son, 
37; childhood of, 3-16; 
elected to National Peasants' 



Congress, 322; escapes, hair- 
breadth, 104-106 ; Geneva, 
attends Conference in, 110; 
girlhood of, 16-21 ; imprison- 
ment in Irkutsk, 278-289; 
imprisonment in Petrograd, 
first, 83-85 ; Irkutsk, letters 
from, 292-298 ; Irkutsk prison, 
letters from, 278-289; joins 
SociaHst Revolutionary Party, 
107; journey to Siberia, first, 
86-88 ; journey to Siberia, 
second, 144-147 ; journey to 
Yakutsk, 289 ; Kirensk, letters 
from, 148-275 ; letters to son, 
135-143; life in Siberia, first 
term, 88-102; life in Siberia, 
second term, 145-309 ; mar- 
riage of, 21 ; Minussinsk, let- 
ters from, 298-308 ; parentage 
of, 1-3 ; parting with son, 38, 
39 ; placed under police sur- 
veillance, 25 ; Preliminary 
Parliament, presides at opening 
of, 329 ; renewal of revolu- 
tionary work, 104-106 ; return 
to Irkutsk, 292; return to 
Russia after revolution, 309- 
310; return to Russia from 
America, 130-132; return to 
Russia from Siberia, first, 102 ; 
Russia's condition and needs 
after revolution, 318-329 ; son, 
letters to, written in Fortress 
of St. Peter and St. Paul, 135- 
143; speech by, 112-118; 
transferred to Minussinsk, 
298; travels in Europe, 109; 
trial and sentence, first, 85 ; 
trial and sentence, second, 
143-144 ; visit to America, 
111-131; Yakutsk, letters 
from, 290, 291 ; welcome in 



INDEX 



341 



Moscow, 310; welcome in 
Petrograd, 311-317 

Breshkovsky, Nicholas, appeals 
for bail, 135 ; birth of, 37 ; edu- 
cation of, 103 ; letters to, 135- 
143 ; parting with, 38, 39 

Brockway, Zebulon R., "Fifty 
Years of Prison Service," 242- 
244 

Brother George, see Lazabeff 

Bulgarians, 297 

Bullard, Arthur, 123, 128, 163, 
172, 253, 258, 265, 283 ; "Com- 
rade Yetta," by, 247, 262; 
letters to, 165, 176, 233, 255, 
304, 324; "A Man's World," 
by, 241, 246, 247, 262; pen 
name, Albert Edwards, 258 

Bulun, 199, 290 

Bund, the Jewish, 107 

Byelozerye, village of, 44 

Cahan, Db. Abkaham, v. 111, 
112, 120 

Calendar of Friendship, 218 

Calf, Katya's, 9, 10 

California, cards from, 182; 
dreams of, 11; suffrage cam- 
paign in, 209 

Canada, 182 

Cataract on eyes, 287, 293 

Catt, Mrs. Carrie Chapman, 302 

Caucasus, 108, 193 

Chamikon, 15 

Chicago, 111, 120, 158, 206; 
Commons, the, 121 

ChUdhood, 3, 4, 5, 9, 11 

Child question, the, 307, 308 

Children, country life for, 209, 
210 ; Mme. Breshkovsky 
among, 121 ; education of, 209, 
231, 297, 298; question of, 
302, 305, 307 ; view of, 184 



Chillon, Castle of, 138 

Chilmark, Mass., 266 

China, 98, 192, 249, 298 

Chinese Revolution, 219 

Christmas festivals, 160 

Commons, Chicago, 121 

Communal groups, 49 

Commune, the, 31, 34, 35, 38, 41 

" Comrade Yetta," 247, 262 

Cooper Union meeting, 120 

Cooperative, associations, 20 ; 
bank, 21 ; colonies, 59 ; work- 
shops, 20, 26 

Coryell, John, 130 

Cossacks, ancient, 234 

Council of Soldiers' and Work- 
men's Delegates, 313 

Council of the Empire, 133 

Crimean War, 15, 45 

Crosby, Ernest, 130 

Culture and Socialism, 248 

Czar, reverence for, 48, 51, 52, 
57, 60 

Czechs, 297 

Daegan, Mbs. Olive Tilfobd, 

260 
Davis, Miss Katherine B., 285 
Davis, Philip, 111 
Denison House, 123, 209 
"De Profundis," by Oscar Wilde, 

282 
Dickens, Charles, 136; "A 

Child's History of England," 

281 
Diderot, 16 
Diogenes, 254 
Dirt, hatred of, 141, 194 
Disorders following Revolution, 

324 
Dissenters, 61, 147 
Dnieper River, 42, 61 
Dole, Rev. Charles F., 187 



34^ 



INDEX 



Dostoievsky, 240 

Douma, 133, 290 

Drury, Miss Julia C, 171, 306 ; 
letter to, 307 

Dudley, Miss Helena S., 123, 
153, 157, 161, 172, 185, 187, 
210, 220, 229, 242, 267; let- 
ters to, 149, 163, 167, 174, 182, 
185, 211, 218, 227, 236, 238, 
250, 262, 283, 288, 297, 298, 
301, 306, 318, 321, 324 

Durland, Kellogg, 120, 123, 130, 

• 132, 214, 215 

East Sibeeia, 207 
Eastern question, 239 
Education, of children, 209, 231, 

297, 298; plan for universal. 

310, 320 
Educators, women as, 285 
Edwards, Albert. See Bullard, 

Arthur 
"Eleventh Hour, The," 214 
Ely, Mrs. R. E., 220 
Ely, Professor Robert Erskine, 

120, 123, 131, 152, 220, 224 
Emancipation of the serfs, 17 
England, 193 

England's statesmanship, 302 
English, language, 98, 111, 121, 

122, 126, 128, 143, 160, 184, 

187, 188, 240, 265, 278, 280; 

literature, 189, 190, 207; pu- 
pils in, 225 
Eniseisk, 298 
Equal rights for women, granted 

in Russia, 322; league to 

promote, 319 
Eristofif, Prince, 278 
Escape attempted from Barguzin, 

93 ; from Kirensk, 276 
Escapes, hairbreadth, 104-105, 

106 



Eugenics, 264, 304 

Evangelists, 61-75 

Evening Post, 207 

Exiles, classes of, 213 ; condition 
of, 155, 159, 162, 165, 186, 191, 
245, 257, 258, 291, 293 

Faneuil Hall, Boston, meet- 
ing in, 111-119 

Farewell to family, 30, 31 

"Fifty Years of Prison Service," 
by Brockway, 242-244 

Fighting League, The, 108, 109 

Figner, Vera, 316, 317 

Finland, women of, 257 

Finns, fate of the, 118, 139 

Flame-seekers, 34 

Flogging, of dissenters, 62; of 
peasants, 6, 16, 18, 19, 50, 52, 
55, 68, 77; Mme. Bresh- 
kovsky sentenced to, 94 

Flora, Siberian, 232 

Florida, 183 

Forecast, power of, 303 

Fortress of St. Peter and St. 
Paul, 74, 134, 135, 139, 140, 
150, 175, 239, 316 

Forward, Jewish Daily, v, 120 

Foulke, Hon. William Dudley, 
111, 118, 125 

France, 193 

Free Russia, 124, 332 

French, and Spaniards compared, 
137; language, 3, 4, 16, 98, 
112, 128, 129, 240, 278; people, 
137, 138; pupils in, 225; 
Revolution, 16 

Friedman, I. K., 120 

Friends of Russian Freedom, 
111 

Galitzin, Duchess, 15, 16 
Garrison, Francis J., 124 



INDEX 



343 



Geneva, conference in, 110; 

Lake of, 137, 138 
George, Brother. See Lazaeeff 
German, characteristics, 300 ; 
civilization, 300 ; governess, 
4, 16, 300; hymns, 67; lan- 
guage, 16, 98; people, destruc- 
tion not desired, 300 ; Protes- 
tants, 67 ; pupils in, 225 
Germans, indignation against, 288 
Germany, ideas from, 321 ; in- 
solence of, 282 ; urges help to 
vanquish, 322 ; war with, 304 
Gershuni, Dr. Gregory, 107, 331 
Golden mean inculcated, 2, 3 
Goldenberg, L., 124 
Goldman, Emma, 122, 123 
Goremykina, Olga Ivanovna, 1, 2 
Gorow, Boris, 124 
Governess, works as, 21 
Greek Church, 2, 62-64, 67; 

monks of the, 36, 62 
Guards' Economic Society, 316 

Health, caee of, 139, 161, 176, 

212, 228, 230, 247, 248, 258 
Helsingfors, picture gallery of, 

139 
Henry, Alice, 207 
Henry Street Settlement, 123 
Heroism, 319 
Herreshoff, Lewis, 171, 183, 231, 

239, 291 ; letters to, 252, 300, 

306 
Higher education of women, 19 
Honolulu, 182 
Horrors, cannot read, 136 
Howe, Mrs. Julia Ward, 111, 

123, 124, 214, 228 
Hull House, 123, 158, 282 
Hungary, travels through, 109 
Hunger strike, 97, 98 
Hymns, Book of, 280 



Iaiagination, power of, 150, 

219, 240, 270 
Independent, The, 188, 190 
International Congresses, 299 
Irkutsk, 101, 252, 287, 289, 290, 

308 ; ill with scurvy in, 145 ; 

prison expecting her, 147; 

women convicts in, 187; life 

in, 277-279, 292, 295 
Italian language, 240 
"Ivanhoe," 136 

Jaeger clothing, 192, 195, 208, 

215 
Japan, 182, 238; war with, 115 
Jewett, Sophie, 173 ; poem by, 

335 
Jewish Bund, 107 
Jewish Daily Forward, v, 120 
Jews, 10, 118; no passports for, 

245 

Kachitg, 145, 147, 188 
Kalyenkina, Maria, 28, 31, 41, 

43, 45, 57, 59 
Kara, mines of, 89-91, 94-100, 

102, 220 
Karakozoff, 20 
Karanzin's "History of Russia," 

16 
Katz, 120, 130 
Kazan Square demonstration, 

85 
Kennan, George, 86, 87, 98-100, 

125, 163, 164, 219, 238; letters 

to, 154, 155 
Kennan, Mrs., 172 
Kerensky, A. P., 311-313, 316, 

322, 329 
Kerensky 's first Cabinet, 110 
Kherson, 61 
Kiev, 20, 22, 26-33, 37, 38, 59, 

82, 83, 105 



344 



INDEX 



Kirensk, 125, US, 144, 147, 148, 
150, 159, 162, 163, 165, 172, 
175, 188, 198, 199, 203, 213, 
236, 278, 286-289 

Kirghis, 192 

Kishinefl massacre, 109 

Kominer, Dr., 35 

Kovalik, 14, 22, 24, 34, 37 

Kovalik family, 14 

Kovno, 30 

Krasnoyarsk, 88 

Kropotkin, Peter, 19, 20, 29 

Kyrenga River, 150, 163, 174, 
198 

La Follette, Senator, 214 
Land question, 17, 26, 48, 60, 77, 

116, 117, 323, 329 
Lavrists, 27, 32 
Lavrov, Peter, 27, 28, 32, 33 
Lawrence, Mrs. Pethick, 238 
Lawrence, Mass., 228, 242 
Lazareflf, George, 280, 282, 293; 

letters to, 148, 279; letters 

from, 202, 213, 236, 260, 276, 

285, 290 
League to Promote Equal Rights 

for Women, 319 
Lena River, 143, 150, 162, 163, 

174, 188, 198, 270, 278-280, 

292, 295, 312; gold mines, 

strike at, 236 ; voyage up the, 

292 
Lessing, essay on Laocoon, 140, 

141 
Leventhal, 35 
Lewissohn, Miss Alice, 260 
Liberals, era of, 17 ; in Petro- 

grad, 19 
Library in Kirensk, 200 
"Life and Labor," 184, 207, 

234 
Liaooln's statue, 187 



Literature needed in Russia, 327, 

329 
London, 110; Daily News, 143 
Lopatin, Herman, 316, 317 
"Lords and Lovers," by O. T. 

Dargan, 260 
Lugovetz, 15, 30 

McAfee, Effie Danfoeth, let- 
ter to, 256 

Mackintosh, Lady, 175 

"Man's World, A," 241, 246, 
247, 262 

Manuscript, Mme. Breshkov- 
sky's, 151, 175 

Manzurka, interview at, 145 

Maria Kalyenkina. See Kaly- 

ENKINA 

Marriage, 21 

Marriages, nominal, 36 

Melnikov, 107 

"Memoirs of a Revolutionist," 

Kropotkin, 20 
Mental occupation as health 

preservative, 103 
Militancy, suffrage, 239 
Minussinsk, 298, 318 
Moghilev, 31 

Montana, victory of woman suf- 
frage in, 284 
"Moral Citadel, A," 224 
Moscow, 20, 318, 319; Douma, 

310 ; welcome in, 310 
"Moses and his Four Brothers," 

53 
Mukhtuiska district, 198 
Mussey, June Barrows, 171, 185, 

223, 266 ; letters to, 166, 226, 

234, 235, 261, 273 
Mussey, Professor Henry R., 

151, 266 
Mussey, Mrs. Mabel H. Bax- 

rows, 128, 215, 280 



INDEX 



S45 



National Geographic Magazine, 
184, 207 

Nazarov, A. A., 316 

Necliayev, 26 

Nekrasof, 20, 28 

Neva, The, 308 

Nevada, victory of woman suf- 
frage in, 284 

"New Freedom, The," by Wood- 
row Wilson, 266, 268 

New York branch of Friends of 
Russian Freedom, 120 

Neiv York Call, 299 

New York City, impressions of, 
126 

New York Prison Association, 
125 

New York settlement, 153 

New York Times, 173; poem 
from, 333 

Nicholas, Czar, 15 

Noble, Edmund, 124 

Nurses' Settlement, 123 

Odessa, 32, 34, 109 ; University 

of, 33 
"Order of Peace and Good 

Will," C. F. Dole, 187 
Original pages of Czar's book of 

laws, 51, 55, 56 
Orlov, 42, 44, 50, 59 
Outlook, The, v, 134, 184, 238 
Overwork, warns against, 176, 

212, 228, 230, 258, 259 

"Panama," by Arthub Bul- 

LARD, 233 
Pankhurst, Christabel, 238 
Parentage, Mme. Breshkovsky's, 

1, 2, 3 
Parents, 183, 184 
Paris, 5, 110; why popular, 

138 



Party, People's, 78, 106 ; Social- 
ist Revolutionary, 107, 109, 
110 

Party of Will of People, 106 

Passports, 41, 44, 72, 80 

Pavlovna, Vera, 36 

Peace, need of, 302 

Peasant girls, 237, 257; woman, 
the, 297 ; provinces, Viatka 
and Perm, 117 

Peasants', achievements, 116; 
Agricultural School, 21 ; rights 
of local suflFrage, 24 

Peasants, 107, 283 ; awakened, 
117; National Congress of, 
322 ; organizing among, 76-78, 
104; Russian, 4, 8, 10, 11, 13, 
16, 17, 21, 24, 27, 30, 32, 35, 
55, 56, 68, 70, 254, 321, 323 

"Pelee, Tragedy of," by George 
Kennan, 156, 163, 164 

Pendleton, Ellen Fitz, 238 

"People, To the," 28, 29, 30 

People's Party, 78, 106 

Perm, province of, 117 

Peter, Brother, 69, 71, 72 

Petition, 297 ; from England and 
America, 143 

Petrograd, 15, 19, 34, 37, 93, 94, 
134, 144, 145, 328 ; prison in, 
83-85 ; work in, 37, 38 

Philadelphia, 111 ; meeting, 119, 
120 

Philadelphia North American, 119 

Philanthropy not enough, 227 

Pilate, Jesus before, 218 

"Pioneer Work for Women," by 
Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell, 285 " 

Platon, 169, 208, 222 

Plehve, von, 109 

Podoha, 78 

Poles, 118, 297 

Police rules for exiles, 92, 93 



346 



INDEX 



Polish, Mme. Breshkovsky one 

fourth, 1 ; peasants, 78 
Political assassination, 108, 109 
Politics, American, 232, 233, 241 
Poole, Ernest, v ; letters to, 299, 

324 
Preliminary Parliament, 329 
Printing presses, 324, 327, 337 
"Prison Service, Fifty Years of," 

Brockway, 242-244 
Prison superintendents, women 

as, 285 
Provincial town, life of, 141 
Provisional Government of 

Russia, 310 
Public, The, 190, 305 
Pushkin, 15 

Reilly, Miss Caeoline I., ^66 

Rest, Evening, 190 

"Resurrection," Tolstoy's, 125 

Reunion Legislative, 321 

Rogestwensky, Assistant Sur- 
geon, 198, 202 

Romances in American maga- 
zines, 258 

Romaszkiewicz, John, 111 

Roosevelt, Theodore, 241 

Roumania, travels through, 109 

Roumanian women, 76 

Rousseau, 16 

Rule for exUes, 93 

RusseU, Governor WiUiam E., 
124 

Russia, history of, 304, 325 

Russian, characteristics, 126, 168, 
174, 175, 183, 193, 211, 236- 
238, 243-245, 250-252, 254, 
266, 283-284, 297, 300-301, 
304, 328; National Anthem, 
123; scenery, 193; soldiers, 
bravery of, 300; types, 250- 
252; view of art, 258 



"Russia's Message," WUliam 

Enghsh Walling, 163 
Ryan, Miss Agnes E., 249, 

264 
Ryobashapka, Ivan, 62, 72, 73, 

74 

Saghauen, 91, 92 

St. Francis of Assisi, 261 

St. Petersburg, 5, 19, 20, 71, 148, 

175, 278 
Savage, Rev. Minot J., 120 
School for peasants, 17 
Scott, Sir Walter, 136 
Scudder, Miss, 264 
Scurvy, 96, 145 
Sebastopol, 15 
Selenginsk, 98, 100, 101, 154, 

219 
Settlements, Mme. Breshkovsky 

welcomed in, 123 
"Seven Ages of Washington," 

183 
"Shepherd, The," by O. T. 

Dargan, 260 
Shevchenko, 43 
Shiria, Madame, 12, 13 
Shishko, 110 
Shitlovsky, Dr., Ill 
Siberia, and exile system, 98, 99, 

154, 155 ; characteristics of, 

157, 221, 294; East, 207; 

first journey to, 86, 87, 88; 

second journey to, 145, 146, 

147; travels in, 89, 90, 91, 

98, 101 
Siberian, classes of exiles, 213 ; 

flora, 232 ; natives, 222 
Siebker, Sophie A., 262, 264 
Skobelev, 315 

Smith, Miss Lucy, 211, 220 
Smolin Convent, 2 
Smyela, life in, 48 



INDEX 



347 



Social Democratic Party, 106 

Social Democrats, 158 

Socialism, and Culture, 248 ; 
Russia advancing toward, 324 

Socialist Revolutionary Party, 
107, 109, 110 

"Souls of Black People," 158 

Spaniards and French compared, 
137 

Speech, Mme. Breshkovsky's, 
112-118 

Starr, Miss Ellen, 123, 155, 172, 
185, 206, 264, 267 ; letters to, 
157, 173, 267, 279, 297, 305, 
324 

Stephanovitch, Yakov, 41, 44, 
46, 47, 57, 61, 71, 79, 82, 83 

Stephan the Evangelist, 63 

Stepniak, 124 

Stolypin, Premier, 134 

Stone, Lucy, 189, 196, 284; 
biography of, 195, 230 

Strikes in Russia, general, 133 

Students' lunch room, 22 

Suffrage, campaign in California, 
209 ; peasants', 24. See also 
Woman Suffrage 

Suffragist, advice to marry a, 
234 

Sugar factories of Smyela, 48 

Sultan derived support from 
Czar, 118 

Sumichrast, Professor F. C. de, 
111 

"Sunny Life, A," by I. C. Bar- 
rows, 261 

Survey, The, 214, 225 

Switzerland, 27, 29, 193, 262; 
revolutionists make pilgrim- 
ages to, 28 ; greetings received 
from, 113 ; revolutionary 
presses in, 107; revolutionists 
in, 110 



Taft, William H., 241 

Taiga, the, 93 

Tartars, 192 

Taslikend, 193 

Tchaldans, 222 

Tchaykovsk}^ Barbara, 103, 143 

Tchaykovsky, Dr. Nicholas, 133, 

134, 135; letters from, 143, 

215 ; letter to, 179 
Tchaykovsky, Mrs., 143 
Tcherkass, 42, 43, 57, 59 
Tchernigov, childhood passed in, 

3 
Tchernoff, Victor, 110 
Tcheidze, N. S., 313, 315 
Terrorism, 108, 109 
Theatrical performances, 231 
Tiumen, 101 
Tobolsk, 101 

Tolstoy's "Resurrection," 125 
"To the People," 28, 29 
Travels in Europe, 109 
Trial, Mme. Breshkovsky's first, 

85, 86 ; second, 143 
Tulchin, 78 
Turco-Russian War, 300 

United States, love for, 164, 
166 ; progress in, 233, 256, 299 

Universities of Petrograd, Mos- 
cow, and Dorpat, 311 

University of Odessa, 33 

Urals, 193, 318 

Verigo, Constantine MnCHAIL- 

oviTCH, 1, 2, 24, 25 
Verigo, Natalie Constantinovna, 

3, 30, 103, 135 
Verigo, Olga Constantinovna, 28, 

31, 38 
Verigo, Olga Ivanovna Goremy- 

kma, 1, 2, 3 
Verigo, Vera, 37 



348 



INDEX 



Verkhni Udinsk, terrible scenes 

at, 91 
Vers lihre, 194, 195 
Viatka, 117 

Vienna, passes through, 109 
Vitebsk, 1 
Vitim, 292 
Vladimiroff, 276 
Vladivostok, 95 
Volkhovsky, Felix, 110, 282 
Voltaire, 16 
Von Plehve, 109 

Wald, Miss Lillian D., 123, 

214, 264, 318 ; letters to, 189, 

270 
Walling, William English, 153 
War, 281, 283, 285, 293, 304, 307, 

308 
Ward, Mrs. L. A. Coonley, 121 
Warsaw, 5 
Welcome, in Moscow, 310 ; in 

Petrograd, 311 
Wellesley CoUege, 119, 238, 250; 

letter to, 216 
Westover School, 294, 297 
Wiener, Professor Leo, 111 



Wife-beating, 65, 66 

Wilde, Oscar, 282 

Wilson, Woodrow, "The New 
Freedom," 266-268, 269 

Woman suffrage, 178, 184, 219, 
232, 234, 249; victories in 
Nevada and Montana, 284 

Woman's Journal, The, 111, 154, 
179, 183, 225, 249 

Woman's sphere, 179 

Women of Northern countries, 
257 

Women's battalion, 323 ; char- 
acteristics, 181, 189, 297; 
duties, 181 

Worry, disadvantages of, 103 

Yakuts, 162, 166, 214 
Yakutsk, 94, 187, 189, 198, 201, 

207, 288-291, 308 
Yarros, Dr., 158 
Yelizavetgrad, 61 
Yezersky, Mrs. Lydia, 291 

Zemstvos, 21, 115, 117 
Zhelyabov, Andrei, 33 
Zlatopol, 76 



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1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 






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